UTC Overseas, an international freight forwarding, and cargo logistics company headquartered in Houston, has expanded its operations in Guyana after teaming up with the South American country’s largest shore base contractor, Guyana Shore Base Inc. (GYSBI).
GYSBI’s 130-acre supply base on the Demerara River, close to the capital city Georgetown, provides shore-based management and logistics services for energy major ExxonMobil and other oil and gas operators in the region.
The new joint venture is now expected to offer operators project forwarding, warehousing, distribution and shore-based services, along with air, ocean and land transportation and customs clearance. According to UTC, the venture will give customers “boots-on-the-ground” and local knowledge alongside a strong global network with expertise in turnkey, greenfield and large-scale energy projects.
“UTC’s reputation in the oil and gas market will open doors with existing and prospective customers,” said Steve Ross-Munro, UTC’s Regional Director in charge of business development.
“Working with our extensive office network and partnering with GYSBI, we will collaborate to expand opportunities with customers worldwide, relying on the trusted experience and knowledge base that has driven both companies’ success,” he added.
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Sean Hill, GYSBI’s General Manager commented that Guyana is a rapidly growing market; as such, “joining with UTC is a natural progression for GYSBI to expand our service offering to our large existing client base.”
Hill added, “We will be able to provide full turnkey services from picking up equipment at a client’s international base, transporting to and storing in Guyana, mobilising it offshore and back again, and re-exporting those tools if needed. Our clients can now leave the full international and domestic transport headaches to us, allowing them to focus on delivering service quality to their clients offshore.”
In less than a decade, Guyana has emerged as one of the world’s most exciting hotspots for offshore crude oil exploration, with estimated recoverable resources of almost 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources at the giant Stabroek Block.
A string of major offshore discoveries led by ExxonMobil could see the country becoming the world’s top per capita oil producer by the end of the decade.
ExxonMobil, alongside partners Hess and CNOOC, expects to be producing more than 800,000 barrels of oil per day from the 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block by 2025.
Motivated by ExxonMobil’s success and the prospect of lower production costs as local infrastructure and expertise develops, other operators, including Spain’s Repsol, UK-based Tullow Oil and Canada’s CGX Energy are aggressively pursuing exploration programmes in hopes of landing similar finds.
