Two indigenous Guyanese sister companies are stepping up their operations in the new South American oil and gas hotspot, pushing local content for US-based Marine Transport Company, Harvey Gulf.
Western Logistics and Pandora Energy are working in tandem to provide logistics and human resource services for the Harvey Power supply vessel currently operating off the Guyana coast.
Director and Crewing Manager of the companies, Narissa Haroon, recently sat down with OilNOW and explained the services being offered to the global marine transport provider.
“Western Logistics is the onshore and offshore logistics support service provider dealing with ground transport, immigration/work permit services, custom brokerage, and Water Permit Chandlery services for ships and rigs, among others,” she related.
“Pandora Energy on the other hand, provides offshore and onshore labour,” she added.
According to Haroon, the companies are “fully- powered by Guyanese.”
“We at Pandora Energy Inc. are very proud to say that we have dispatched our first set of workers on the 17th June, 2019,” she stated.
Delving into the details of the recruitment drive which so far has seen 15 Guyanese being hired, the Director said, “Pandora Energy was involved in the recruitment, selection, proposal, processing and training of the individuals for the Harvey Power.”
She added that some other processes that the companies were involved in includes “insurance, OGUK Medical, fitting the crew with their Personal Protective Equipment, booking of flights and transportation of the crew members to the airport.”
The current batch consists of two Dynamic Positioning Officers, five able-bodied seamen, five ordinary sailors and three cooks.
The workers, she added, would be working on a rotational shift system. The system is one of “28 consecutive days on, followed by 28 consecutive days off and the other three on standby.”
“We have recruited them from as far as Parika on the East Bank of Essequibo and from the sugar belt of Berbice. While selecting, we try to select the best,” Haroon noted.
“We have the experience and competence to do this,” she said of the training of the workers.
Chief Executive Officer of Harvey Gulf, Shane Guidry, told OilNOW in an interview in March that the company is committed to ensuring Guyanese are given the opportunity to fully participate in its local operations.
The aim, he noted, is to hire Guyanese and then expose them to a rigorous training programme at the company’s operations facility in the US, “which is one of the topnotch facilities on the Gulf Coast,” he said.
Harvey Gulf’s customer base consists of major drilling contractors and Exploration and Production companies that primarily operate in the deepwater and ultra-deepwater industry.
In August of last year, the company, which is based in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, announced that it was expanding its scope and targeting new markets in Guyana and Trinidad.
