Oil And Gas Year Book To Give Brunei Good Exposure

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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: The Energy Department at the Prime Minister’s Office officially launched the Oil and Gas Year, Brunei 2012 book and the department’s new official website yesterday, Borneo Bulletin reported

The launching of the book took place at the Jerudong Polo Club, and saw the Minister of Energy at the Prime Minister’s Office, Pehin Datu Singamanteri Col (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Haji Mohd Yasmin bin Haji Umar officially receive the The Oil and Gas Yearbook.

Speaking at the launch, Guillaume Doane, CEO of The Oil and Gas Year explained the book’s contents, saying, “What we hope to achieve via this publication is to complete an introduction to this country’s oil and gas sector, its industry, its history and to advance the national conversation between industries’ leaders on how to respond to the challenges that are being faced.”

He said that all sectors in the oil and gas industry are covered in full from upstream to downstream and all the activities in between, noting that special attention has been given to the exploits of Brunei Shell Petroleum after an eight decades’ long partnership in this country and a quest to secure new resources of hydrocarbons in uncharted areas.

Doane also mentioned that there are several individuals and organisations to thank for their contribution to the development of the book.

“Never has Brunei’s energy sector been covered in such breadth, in detail and several companies deserve our gratitude, including Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam, Petroleum Brunei, Shell, TOTAL, Murphy Oil, Petronas, Brunei LNG and many more.

“Our utmost appreciation, however, goes out to the Minister of Energy (at the PMO) and co-publishers at the Department of Energy,” he said. “The book devotes substantial copy to the transforming policies of the minister to extend upstream activities both onshore and offshore, and to invest in job creation within the downstream sector”

As a concluding message, he brought up the fact that his company’s work with Brunei represents their first foray in Southeast Asia.

“This was no accident – Brunei is a source of strength and stability in this region, and has 80 years of oil and gas legacy to its name,” he said. “It is a pioneer on many fronts – a position that has allowed it to thrive, even as the economies of the world have been tested by adversity”.

Speaking to the Borneo Bulletin on the new book, the minister said, “It’s going to be distributed in over a 100 countries, so the exposure that Brunei will get from this book will be tremendous. You cannot imagine.

“We are the first in Southeast Asia to publish this 2012 yearbook,” he continued.

Asked what he personally felt is the biggest highlight of the book, he said, “The way we do business in oil and gas here in Brunei. It’s very transparent, and it tells you who is in this industry”.

Speaking on the new website, the minister said, “Whatever questions or difficulties people may have, they can always contact the government,” he added.

“The website provides a medium of communication to the Rakyat of Brunei Darussalam. I assure you, we have people manning it 24/7,” he said.

Yesterday’s proceedings also saw Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) awarded the Discovery of the Year by The Oil and Gas Year for its major deep water discovery in Geronggong. Ken Marnoch, the Managing Director of BSP, was on hand to receive the award.