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Govt. approves Annual Local Content Plans for Exxon, four others
Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) on May 15 approved this year’s Annual Local Content Plans for the five major oil companies operating in Guyana, including ExxonMobil, Halliburton, TechnipFMC, Saipem and Baker Hughes.
The Plans are required under the Local Content Act of 2021. Passed in December 2021, the Local Content law is intended to regulate the way companies operate in Guyana’s oil and gas sector; employ persons, buy services and the way that they procure goods.
The First Schedule of the Act ring-fences 40 categories of work for Guyanese participation via the supply of goods and the provision of services which include: food supply, rental of office space, accommodation, insurance, accounting and legal services.
Only a few days ago, Exxon reported that it spent more than $80 billion (US$400 million) with more than 1,500 Guyanese businesses in 2022 alone.
Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat hands over the approved Local Content Annual Plan to President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge. The men are joined in the background by Director of the Local Content Secretariat, Dr. Martin Pertab and the ministry’s Legal Officer, Michael Munroe.
In a statement on Sunday, MNR said a simple ceremony was held in the Ministry’s boardroom where subject Minister, Vickram Bharrat was joined by key representatives of the signing companies — President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Mr. Alistair Routledge, Area Director for Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad of TechnipFMC, Mr. Nicolas Siccard. Country Lead of Halliburton Guyana, Mr. Vahman Jurai, Country Manager of Bakers Hughes, Guyana Mr. Jon Charles Rhodes and the Country Manager of Saipem Guyana, Mr. Gianluigi Della Rosa. The team comprised, too, the Director of the Local Content Secretariat, Dr. Martin Pertab, and the ministry’s Legal Officer, Mr. Michael Munroe.
As stated in the Local Content Act, contractors, sub-contractors and licensees operating in Guyana’s petroleum sector must submit a Local Content Annual Plan, outlining in detail their procurement, employment and capacity development plans for the reporting year.
Minister Bharrat noted that these plans reaffirm the Government of Guyana’s goal of ensuring that companies invest heavily in the development of local content. With an enhanced value chain, the minister stated that Guyanese suppliers are given a fair opportunity to not only tap directly into the nation’s burgeoning petroleum sector, but to also build, strengthen and expand their business’ capacity and services.
Bharrat said, “We are pleased to see the commitment of these companies to local content, and we look forward to working with them to ensure that the goals of the Local Content Act are achieved. This is a crucial step towards building a sustainable oil and gas industry that benefits all Guyanese.”
Meanwhile, Halliburton’s Country Lead commented that the company is proud of its commitment to local talent and vendor development in Guyana. He added, “Through the Secretariat’s guidance and our management team’s dedication, our expectation is to continue not just meeting, but exceeding, our local content and sustainable development targets.”
Technip’s TechnipFMC’s Area Director echoed similar sentiments. “Growing local content is not an obligation; this is how we do things from a TechnipFMC standpoint. Since the commencement of our activities in Guyana in 2017, we have indeed endeavoured to gradually develop our local content: through developing a Guyanese workforce… through growing a pool of passionate local subcontractors, and through investing into TechnipFMC’s very own support asset in Guyana – our world-class service base. The combination of those three pillars enabled the complete repatriation of our activities in the country at the end of 2021, and has been the foundation on which we built our successes today.”
The five companies were also awarded their Certificates of Compliance from the Local Content Secretariat. These certificates confirm that the respective companies have delivered on commitments and targets set out in their annual plans.
Monday’s handing over of the Compliance Certificates commemorated the first such ceremony since the establishment of the Local Content Act. The Ministry explained that the Secretariat is currently in the process of awarding certificates to other companies, as ensures the requirements are upheld.
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