Guyana Logistics and Support Services (GLASS) Incorporated was established in 2011 and serviced the mining industry for some time. However, the business experienced some ‘dormant years,’ according to the company’s Human Resources and Manpower Services Manager, Romona Rahat, who shared how the emergence of the oil and gas industry allowed the business to not only re-emerge, but to do so successfully.
Rahat spoke of the period of dormancy for the business but said that with the first oil discovery in 2015, the company “resuscitated its incorporation in 2016 and started to provide logistics support services to the oil and gas sector.” Now, she says GLASS is one of the most rapidly growing, majority-owned Guyanese companies providing services to the industry.
Services offered include custom brokerage, manpower, procurement, and relocation. She shared, “We also have a construction arm which has been providing service…to the oil and gas companies and other entities.”
Pointing to one of the most flourishing arms of the company, Rahat said that GLASS has become the manpower service of choice for the local oil and gas industry. Manpower services differ from recruitment. Recruitment service source employees to be engaged by companies, but manpower services recruit workers, employ them under their company and deploy them to serve in their clients’ companies. “So, we would administer the benefits to that employee. We pay their taxes and their NIS and whatever benefits we have as part of our plan as an employer…,” Rahat explained.
Rahat described ExxonMobil Guyana as a platinum client. Rahat said, “We have successfully been able to deploy a number of persons to their operations ranging from travel to logistics, maintenance and health and safety. So that’s something we are quite proud of.”
She said other clients include prime contractors working in the oil and gas industry.
While the company has sourced foreign employees from countries as far away as Indonesia, Scotland and London, they are keen on their local content development goals, and are utilising the expatriate workers to fulfil these objectives.
“We are very local content-focused. At the moment, we do have expats who are working with us. In commitment to that local content drive, we have Guyanese who are shadowing these expats in various positions,” the Manager noted. Further to this, the company also facilitates local and international training for employees, as well as internships for both university and technical-level students.
Rahat said that the opportunities for locals to become employed by the company is wide-ranging with jobs in areas including engineering, geoscience, logistics, procurement, materials management, project management and execution, research and technology, among others.
