The U.S. Department of State led a U.S. interagency technical team to Victoria on October 26-28, 2010. The purpose of the visit was to conduct a needs assessment for the Energy Governance and Capacity Initiative (EGCI), which is a Department of State-led effort to provide a range of capacity-building technical support to the governments and institutions of selected countries that are expected to become oil and gas producers and exporters during the next decade. During their visit to the capital of Seychelles, Victoria, the U.S. team from the Department of State’s Office of the Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Technical Assistance (OTA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) met with a range of Government of Seychelles (GoS) officials. The EGCI team’s Victoria visit provided valuable insight into general and specific areas in which the GOS could build institutional capacity that would help to strengthen its oil and gas sector decision making, governance structure and revenue management capability.

 BOEMRE Partners

	SeyPec (Nat’l oil company)
	Dept. of Natural Resources
	Dept. of the Environment
	Seychelles Ports Authority

Activities to Date/Planned

Planned for July 2011 – Workshop on the U.S. Experience in Managing the Offshore Oil & Gas Sector. The workshop will provide a comprehensive overview of the responsibilities and activities of the BOEMRE in the United States (2011). This course would include a detailed discussion of how issues relevant to Seychelles’ offshore oil and gas sector are handled in the United States. Topics would include: tendering; geologic and economic modeling; reviewing, authorizing, and inspecting exploration and production infrastructure; pipeline management; and environmental review and compliance. This workshop would lay the foundation for a range of other specialized workshops and possible in-country technical assistance on a range of specific subjects (e.g., prospect valuation, reservoir management, unitization, petroleum economics, petroleum contract analysis, hydrocarbon database management, offshore platform safety & inspections, oil spill response planning, environmental analysis for the offshore environment, accident investigation, platform decommissioning, etc.). Topics covered would depend on GOS interests, EGCI partner commitments and program funding availability.

Countries in the EGCI