Guyana’s oil and gas sector is set to hire over 1,600 Guyanese in the period 2024-2026. During the reading of the 2024 national budget, Guyana’s finance minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, outlined the hiring forecast as detailed in the five-year master plans submitted by companies in the sector.
According to these government-approved plans, the sector anticipates hiring 601 locals in 2024, 509 in 2025, and 536 in 2026. Cumulatively, these figures total over 1,600 new job opportunities for Guyanese in the oil and gas sector by 2026.
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This will build on the growth in local employment since the enactment of the Local Content Act. Dr. Singh highlighted that from January 2022 to the present, the sector has seen 3,938 local hires, with 785 occurring in the first half of 2023. The current workforce comprises a wide range of roles, including 824 plant and machine operators, 1,203 professionals such as accountants, lawyers, and engineers, and 485 technicians.
Regarding the sector’s need for engineers, the University of Guyana is not producing them fast enough. The institution’s Vice Chancellor, Dr. Paloma Mohamed, had said the sector is absorbing engineers even before they graduate.
Several Guyanese graduate engineers trained in Singapore support operations on the Prosperity floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which started production operations in November 2023. SBM Offshore is the builder and operator of the FPSO, on contract with ExxonMobil.
“The Local Content Act 2021 continues to bear fruit and government will continue to implement strategies that promote opportunities for Guyanese nationals and companies,” Dr. Singh stated.
He said the total number of Guyanese now employed in the sector exceeds 6,000.
The finance minister also reported substantial increase in contracts for locals in the last two years. The oil and gas industry’s annual plans for 2023 projected about US$721 million in procurement of goods and services, an increase from US$700 million in 2022.
