Guyanese represent fifty-two percent of ExxonMobil’s local workforce while 227 Guyanese companies supplied its oil and gas operations in 2018.
ExxonMobil’s Senior Director, Public and Government Affairs, Kimberly Brasington, provided data to Guyana’s Department of Public Information (DPI) which indicated that 585 Guyanese were employed on the drill rigs, shore bases and affiliate office at the end of March.
These workers were drawn from ExxonMobil’s subcontracted companies such as Noble. The Noble Bob Douglas has been contracted to drill the 17 wells for the Liza Phase 1 development. The drill ship currently has 160 personnel on board of which 23 are Guyanese in the positions of catering, roustabouts, clerks, logistics and one doctor.
ExxonMobil also provided 61,000 training hours for workers and hired three facilities engineer graduates; two from the University of Guyana and one from the University of the West Indies, in March.
The company is also providing training to Guyanese to fulfill key responsibilities including to serve as primary subsea engineers on the maintenance team, coordinate equipment strategy and operational issues and be part of its emergency response unit.
The data also shows that 48 percent of the workforce includes non-Guyanese and CARICOM (Caribbean Community) workers during the first quarter of 2018.
“We take building local content seriously and have demonstrated that through action and capacity building,” Brasington said. This also applies to the suppliers ExxonMobil uses in its operations.
Building supplier capacity
The company spent US$14M with 227 Guyanese suppliers as of Q1 2018. Brasington explained these are non-duplicate Guyanese owned companies. ExxonMobil also worked with 35 foreign-owned companies or CARICOM companies, which had locally registered businesses.
At the end of 2017, ExxonMobil had used 309 Guyanese-owned companies along the supply chain or the ‘knock-on effect’ of the industry, Brasington pointed out.
“The direct opportunities with ExxonMobil are relatively small in number, compared to the larger scale when you look at the entire picture of contractors working to support ExxonMobil’s operations in Guyana,” Brasington explained.
The company is also building supplier capacity through its Centre for Local Business Development. Since its establishment almost 1 year ago, 1,730 persons, including businesses, have been trained in four courses on energy literacy.
Meanwhile, the Centre has registered 1,163 companies on its Supplier Registration Portal (SRP) of which 855 are Guyanese companies.
