ExxonMobil has six months to present local content plan

Jun 18, 2017 News

ExxonMobil has to supply the government with a local content plan within six months as part of the production licence which it was recently granted.
On Friday, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman told the Department of Public Information/ Government Information Agency (DPI/GINA) the plan will cover the years leading up to production in 2020.
“So that we will know how local content, both in terms of employment and procurement, and the provision of goods and services will be phased into this project over the next three years going into production,” Minister Trotman said.
The Minister added he was “very happy” that Exxon and its partners have made their financial investment decision (FID) to proceed with phase one development of the Liza field.
On Friday, in a release on its website, Exxon announced it has made its FID, which will see the company acquiring a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility to develop approximately 450M barrels of oil.
Minister Trotman said the decision by Exxon and its partners prove, “They felt confidence in the work of the government of Guyana, that Guyana is a good place for investment, and the political climate and the regulatory climate, and everything is in place for them to proceed to bring this resource to production.”
The Minister noted the decision is the “the largest investment in Guyana’s history”.
Phase one is projected to cost Exxon and its partners US$4.4B.
Meanwhile, Minister Trotman pointed out that the draft Local Content Policy has already been shared with the private sector as part of facilitating consultations before it is brought to the National Assembly.
“This is a raw draft; it is not a perfect document; I know it has weaknesses I need your help to tell me where to give it strength and so we’re getting some comments coming back from them,” Minister Trotman said he expressed to the private sector.
The Local Content Policy is expected to be finalised by August. The policy is expected to lay out what exactly Guyana expects from foreign investors when they come here.These include training for locals and the need to purchase materials and services from Guyana by the company.