Internship and training opportunities together with the facilitating the participation of Guyanese in workshops both locally and internationally is being proposed by ExxonMobil. This was revealed when officials of ExxonMobil, which is preparing to commence oil exploration here, met with Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, and a team from the Ministry including staff of the Petroleum Directorate, Mr. Nicholas Chuck-a-Sang, Ms. Joanna Homer, Ms. Zola Williams and others, to share their plans for local content development in Guyana. The ExxonMobil contingent included Country Manager, Rod Henson, Senior Director, Public and Government Affairs, Kimberly Brasington, Director, Government Affairs, Carlton James, , and Socio-economic Advisor, Treacy Roberts.
During the meeting, the ministry team was updated on the company’s workforce development and capacity building activities that are currently underway.
Moreover, it was amplified that Guyanese have also begun to benefit from training and employment opportunities available on the Stena Caron vessel as well as with ExxonMobil suppliers including Geolog, Hornbeck, Technip FMC and El Dorado Offshore which is a local company. Engagements with the University of Guyana have also been initiated.
Officials also shared that as development of Liza 1 progresses, opportunities are becoming available for Guyanese companies to supply goods and services through tenders that are currently open or will become available. Businesses will also be able to access training from ExxonMobil’s Center for Local Business Development which will be launched in July, 2017 in collaboration with Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED).
The company is expanding its internal capacity with the addition of Socio-economic Advisor, Treacy Roberts who will join ExxonMobil in August and have specific responsibility for coordinating the company’s local content efforts and monitoring the activities of all ExxonMobil Suppliers to ensure that they comply with local content requirements. Exxonmobil, and its partners Hess and CNOOC Nexen, will be submitting a detailed local content plan by December, 2017.
Minister Trotman expressed his appreciation for the efforts that have begun and noted that it infuses a sense of confidence that the company is committed to honouring its obligations to Guyana.
The Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Natural Resources, continues to advance efforts to ensure that Guyanese will derive maximum benefit through local content development efforts