Interest among Guyanese companies looking to benefit from opportunities in the oil and gas industry has grown immensely in the two years since ExxonMobil announced its world-class Liza discovery offshore the South American country.
ExxonMobil’s Senior Director, Public and Government Affairs, Kimberly Brasington, explains: “I look back two years ago and there might be single digits; one or two that can come to mind, of Guyanese companies that were actively competing in the industry. Right now, I can think at the top of my head; helicopter support contracts, freight forwarding contracts, shore-base, marine supply vessels support, and these are all active tenders that we are either about to, or currently going out for, and every single one of them has Guyanese content.”
One such company; Guyana Shore Base Inc., says it will be providing around 100 direct jobs and between 200-300 indirect jobs with supporting companies and partners, to fulfill its obligations of providing shore-base services to ExxonMobil.
In July of this year, the company also established the Centre for Local Business Development in Georgetown, Guyana, to help with the training and capacity building of small and medium-size businesses.
“That is why we established the Centre for Local Business Development, and to be fair, in other countries around the world that was something that came maybe a few years from now, but there was such hunger here and so we established it right away,” she said.
Additionally, the company has over the last two years spent in excess of US$1.3M in the procurement of goods and services from Guyanese companies. “…So that’s money invested directly into this country,” Brasington pointed out.
To date, 193 Guyanese companies have registered on ExxonMobil’s supplier registration portal for potential contractors.
