In the interest of giving ordinary Guyanese even more opportunities to directly benefit from the oil and gas sector, the Government is working on a project that will allow investors, including ordinary Guyanese, to invest and get returns.
President Ali made this announcement during a recent press conference, saying that they will soon announce an investment project in the oil and gas sector, that will bring together investors, including ordinary Guyanese.
“I’m now working on a plan to go much larger and much further than SUVs [vehicles contract], one in which all the private sector, every single cent, we can mobilise as a country to invest in a business opportunity in the oil and gas sector to create an infrastructure that all those investors can invest and one in which ordinary Guyanese will be able to invest, so that they too can be part of the growth and opportunities. I will launch that very soon,” the President said.
Ali further maintained that the Government’s intent with the oil and gas sector is to ensure that Guyana can reach a point where it can supply all the needs of the oil majors and their sub-contractors.
“We have protection in local content for certain businesses. We have a lot of local persons who have invested in transportation services, who are fully utilised. As a matter of fact, we in the Government had to relook at the fact that we have a lot of delegations that are coming. Foreign delegations. Leaders.”
“And we were placed in an embarrassing situation where we did not get the type of vehicle to rent, because we used to rent vehicles because most of them were occupied in the oil and gas sector. But as I said, we are going to push to ensure that every service we can provide as a people, will be provided.”
It was announced last year that since Government brought the Local Content Secretariat (LCS) into operation in January 2022, preliminary figures show that Guyanese suppliers have earned over GY$129 billion from the oil sector.
According to the Secretariat, as of November it had also issued some 354 Local Content Certificates to Guyanese suppliers of the nation’s oil and gas sector. Director of the Secretariat, Martin Pertab, had said that the unit continues to work alongside and engage with contractors, sub-contractors, licensees and Guyanese suppliers to ensure that the goals of the Local Content Act are met.
Oil companies and their sub-contractors are also more incentivised to utilise vendors who were approved by the Secretariat. When registering with the Secretariat, which is free of cost, suppliers are asked to submit certain crucial documents, depending on the type of proprietorship.
Meanwhile, a breakdown of the services Guyanese provide to oil companies includes rental of office space and accommodation, equipment rental (crane and other heavy-duty machinery), surveying, pipe welding, blasting and coating – onshore, construction work for buildings – onshore, structural fabrication, waste management (hazardous & non-hazardous), storage services, janitorial and cleaning services.
Other services include catering, food supply, administrative support and facilities management services, immigration support services, work permits, lay-down yard facilities, customs brokerage services, export packaging/crating, preservation and inspection, pest control/exterminator services, cargo management/monitoring, ship and rig chandlery, and environmental services and studies.
They also provide transportation of trucking ventilation (private, commercial and industrial), industrial cleaning security services, ICT network installation. There are also a number of support services, such as manpower and crewing, dredging, local insurance, legal and medical services, aviation engineering and machining, and local marketing and advertising services.
