Guyanese will soon begin to receive specialized training to work on Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels through a Strategic Partnership Venture (SPV) between Strategic Recruitment Solutions (SRS) and Century Tamara Energy Services Inc. (CTES).
SRS is 100 percent Guyanese owned while CTES is 51 percent Guyanese owned. CTES is a bridge company of Century International Group Nigeria.
Speaking to OilNOW on Friday, August 24, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SRS, Kerri Gravesande-Bart said, “This synergy will focus on catering, training and manpower development. Century Group has been very versed. Their expertise lies in the operation and maintenance of FPSOs so we believe that this is where we can benefit most by sending trainees on internship programmes to Nigeria and Singapore where FPSOs are being built.”
Gravesande-Bart said they will also be providing internships for storekeepers, engineers, electrical and instrumentation technicians. “We even have plans in the pipeline to partner with an international catering company out of France and we see this as a huge opportunity to show that we’re able to collaborate locally and internationally to bring the competencies up to the level that is needed,” she stated.
Giving his perspective, Country Manager of CTES, Sheldon Davis, said SRS will provide the recruits who will then be trained—in theory in Guyana—before being sent to Nigeria and Singapore for hands-on experience.
Century Group deals with the operation and maintenance of FPSOs, supply of offshore vessels as well as ports and terminals management. Davis said that it is estimated that it will take Guyanese about 10 years to attain the skills needed for management and supervisory positions.
“So what we intend to do [is] give them a fast track. We intend to start sending them off by year-end or early next year. So if you do the count, by year 2025/2026, most of them will have about seven years’ experience. So we intend to ensure that they are placed in our facilities that we currently operate and maintain…where they will be compensated for their daily jobs or their daily training,” he explained.
Davis, who, like Gravesande-Bart is also Guyanese, said his countrymen will be exposed to the workings of FPSOs where they will acquire specialized skills and knowledge about equipment never before seen in Guyana.
“That’s what I think will give them a better understanding of what it takes to work offshore for a length of time and not just working in a drilling or rigging environment,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gravesande-Bart disclosed that engineers and technicians have already been identified from Guyana, some of whom were recruited from the Government Technical Institute. It is expected that training will start at the end of 2018 or during the first quarter of 2019.
Strategic Recruitment Solutions – sourcing skills for the oil and gas industry
Reflecting on what this major initiative means for the development of local content and how, as two young Guyanese entrepreneurs, they are playing a major role in advancing manpower development, both Gravesande-Bart and Davis said they were extremely proud.
“I am very excited. The expertise, the talent – we do have the talent in Guyana – we just have to want to be able to learn and grow,” Gravesande-Bart said.
