September 13, 2008

CGX makes US$25,000 grant to UG

Guyana Chronicle

The Canadian oil company, CGX Resources Inc made a donation of US$25,000 to the Faculty of Technology at University of Guyana (UG) on Wednesday.

Dean of the UG Technology Faculty, Mr. Sherwood Lowe receives the cheque from Mr. Jim Fairbairn, Chief Finance Officer of CGX. (Adrian Narine photo)

The grant was delivered in the boardroom of Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) on Brickdam, Georgetown, where Dean of the UG Technology Faculty, Mr. Sherwood Lowe received the cheque from Mr. Jim Fairbairn, Chief Finance Officer of CGX.

Also present were Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Head of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Mr. Brett Maitland, senior officials of GGMC and others from UG.

The proceedings were chaired by Head of the Petroleum Department of GGMC, Mr. Newell Dennison, in the presence also of Dr Kamal Dookie, a Guyanese director of CGX.

Fairbairn said the benefactor was donating to the Faculty of Technology so that it could build a state-of-the-art computer laboratory, hire staff and enhance the technical capabilities of students.

“We also hope that this donation would be the start of our continuing contributions to the people of Guyana,” he said.

The direct beneficiaries will be staff and students in the Department of Mining within the faculty, officials said.

Prime Minister Hinds, Acting GGMC Commissioner, Mr. William Woolford and Mr. Totar Mangar, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UG, made remarks at the forum, as well.

Mr. Hinds said the receipt by the faculty should be seen by its staff and students as a challenge and an obligation to strive for higher levels of excellence.

He said it is challenging for all Guyanese, at this time, to steadily increase their production and productivity towards improvement of the economy and material standards of living.

The Prime Minister said the CGX gift should be a seen as a boost for such aspirations.

Woolford described the contribution as tangible evidence of corporate social responsibility by CGX.

He said, in its relationships with companies in the mining sector, whether solid minerals, oil or gas, GGMC has always sought to impress upon them the opportunities they have for contributing to the education of some people who would comprise their future staff.

Woolford said GGMC had collaborated very effectively with OMAI Gold Mines Limited in that regard and he exhorted other operatives in the mining industry to follow the example of CGX, step forward and make their contributions to education, too.

Mangar expressed appreciation for the CGX gesture and thanked GGMC for its support to the UG Technology Faculty in general and its mining programme, in particular, over the years.

CGX recently made the formal announcement that it will resume drilling for crude oil in offshore Guyana.

Its previous efforts, which started off the Corentyne Coast in Berbice, were halted by Suriname gunboats in June 2000.

Suriname had long claimed part of the Guyana territory but that dispute was settled by the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea last year.