World Bank and local stakeholders discuss EITI implementation in Seychelles

World Bank and local stakeholders discuss EITI implementation in Seychelles

09-April-2015


A World Bank mission from the Energy and Extractive Global Practice of the World Bank met local stakeholders yesterday to discuss the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) implementation in Seychelles.

The stakeholders comprised parliamentarians, officials of the Seychelles Petroleum Company (Seypec), civil society, finance department of the Ministry of Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy.

The EITI is a global standard for the governance of a country’s oil, gas and mineral resources. It is implemented by governments, in collaboration with companies and civil society where they work to improve the management of natural resources.

Countries implementing the EITI disclose information on tax payments, licences, contracts production, and other key elements around resource extraction.

As a country’s natural wealth resources belong to its citizens, it can lead to economic growth and social development. On the other hand if it is not managed properly, can create negative economic and social impact.

Since initial oil exploration has yielded encouraging results, Seychelles wants to put in place an appropriate governance structure for the petroleum sector.

With the support of the Extractive Industries Technical Assistance Fund (EITAF), the government completed the requirements to join EITI and was admitted as an EITI candidate country in August 2014. Forty-eight countries have already implemented the EITI.

In his introductory presentation, the principal secretary for Finance, Patrick Payet, said the meeting was to inform stakeholders on the work that has been done so far regarding Seychelles’ access to EITI.

He explained why Seychelles joined the EITI, the work plan implemented and its objectives.

“The decision to join started in 2012 when the government started to implement institutional and regulatory reforms as part of the 2008 economic reform. The main aim is to attract further investment in that sector. The second one was the strengthening of transparency because as we know Seychelles is very small.

The financial reporting of the petroleum sector is very important,” he said.

The first step, he said, towards joining the EITI was in 2013 from a press release from the then Minister for Finance, stating the country’s intention to join EITI. The president then appointed senior individuals with the Minister for Finance leading that process and this was followed by the setting up of a multi stakeholder working group (MSG) comprising the civil society, private sector and government officials.

The MSG group comprises the principal secretary for finance as chairman; the Governor of the Central Bank; the commissioner and legal advisor of the Revenue Commission; a representative from the Attorney General’s office; a representative from the Ministry of Environment; four members of the non-governmental organisation Ceps (Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles); the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI); the country manager of Ernst & Young and one from Corvina representing the private sector and from oil companies the chief executive of PetroSeychelles, the managing director of WHL Energy and the general manager external relations of Afen EAX.

Mr Payet also gave details of the work plan itself which he said links to the EITI objectives and principles.
“The main objectives of the work plan is to ensure we have oil sector governance, efficient management of oil revenues, that is any revenues that government apparently collect from the oil sector we have to transparently make it available to any people to be able to view,” he said.

He added as the oil sector and the MSG are something new to Seychelles there’s a need for capacity building in that process.

He also mentioned the need for good legal basis in Seychelles to ensure that if we find oil to have a good process to know where the oil revenue will go or how it can be spent.

Hilda Harnack of the World Bank based her presentation on how the Bank can provide assistance to countries implementing EITI initiatives like the Seychelles. Fatima Kante, economist at the finance department, gave details of the Seypec work plan 2015-2016 and the various priority activities to make such a plan a success.

Ilhem Salamon talked on the role of parliament in strengthening oil governance while the chief executive of PetroSeychelles Eddie Belle spoke on the industry perspective of EITI and on oil sector issues relating to managing expectations in view of lower oil prices and on environmental concerns.

http://www.nation.sc/article.html?id=245042

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PetroSeychelles responsible for the upstream petroleum sector

10-April-2015
Since March 2012, the responsibility for the upstream petroleum sector in Seychelles was transferred to PetroSeychelles and Seychelles Petroleum Company (Seypec) retained the responsibility for the downstream sector.

This means that PetroSeychelles is responsible for managing petroleum exploration and if oil is found in economic quantities, it will also oversee the development and production phases.

Seypec, on the other hand, is responsible for importing, transporting, marketing and sales of refined petroleum products such as LPG, gasoline, kerosene, diesel and fuel oil.

PetroSeychelles’ chief executive Eddy Belle made this clarification in a letter yesterday following the publication of the article entitled ‘World Bank and local stakeholders discuss EITI implementation in Seychelles’ which appeared in our issue of yesterday.

A World Bank mission from the Energy and Extractive Global Practice of the World Bank met local stakeholders on Wednesday to discuss the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) implementation in Seychelles. The stakeholders comprised parliamentarians, officials of civil society, finance department of the Ministry of Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy, and PetroSeychelles not Seypec as erroneously reported.

http://www.nation.sc/article.html?id=245051