U.S. oilfield service company Halliburton aims to have 100 percent of its operations serviced from Guyana in 2021. The company expects this move to result in a major increase in its in-country purchases, by at least 50 percent, and expand regional opportunities for local businesses.
Halliburton has been providing a range of drilling and completion services to ExxonMobil, and currently 90 percent of their operations are being serviced from Guyana.
The company’s Business Development Manager, Vahman Jurai, says its operations in Guyana have grown considerably since starting in 2015. Halliburton started out by providing cementing solutions to ExxonMobil and has expanded to include multiple services. Its current operations include one of the largest mud plants in the hemisphere.
“The objective…in 2021, moving forward, is to continue growing our activity in [the] country and working closely with the vendor to develop an increased local content, and more or less continue increasing our activity locally with our vendors,” Jurai told participants of the Guyana Supplier Forum 2021. The virtual forum, held from February 1-5, was hosted by the Centre for Local Business Development with sponsorship from ExxonMobil Guyana and the Stabroek Block co-venturers, Hess and CNOOC.
Currently, Halliburton’s expenditure on equipment locally stands between US$10 million to $US12 million.
“Moving forward, there will be a change in how we’re operating because the majority now of our operations will be out of Guyana. So, in 2021, one hundred percent of our operations will be coming fully out of Guyana,” the company official told local businesses.
Halliburton previously provided services from Trinidad related to Fluids Operations and Completions, but these have now been transferred to Guyana, which will also handle additional services. “So, our spend locally will be increasing around 50 percent,” Jurai said.
The plan to shift all ‘service-client’ operations to Guyana is geared towards the enhancement of operational efficiency and delivery in the long term. This will give Guyanese companies an opportunity to acquire contracts in support of Halliburton’s regional operations, such as in Trinidad and Suriname.
Higher fluids sales in Guyana help bump up Halliburton Latin America revenue
“Our ability to use Guyana to support the other areas, that is what we’re looking at in the near future. How we can get Guyana to actually start supporting the other areas,” the Business Development Manager stated. He noted that they have been working with Guyanese businesses to improve their standards so that these local businesses can tap into the regional opportunities.
“We work closely with them in developing their standards, so we sit down, work with them and create…a gap analysis in what else they need to improve on. We work with them on that to bring them up to standard that they can work outside,” he highlighted.
Jurai continued, “Our expectation and plan are to continue our growth in Guyana over the next three years. In 2021, our activity level will increase and so we will be working closer with our local suppliers to support this growth.”
