A GEOTECHNICAL engineering company is using its own funds to build local content here and could be ready to break ground when U.S. oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil moves into oil production in 2020.
The Ground Structures Engineering Consultants (GSEC) located in D’andrade Street, Newton, Georgetown, has been in existence for almost 25 years, having been founded back in 1993 by U.S.-trained Geotechnical Engineer Charles Ceres. The company has been offering geotechnical engineering and environmental services to a number of local and international companies.

Today, the company has trained many Guyanese, some of whom have moved on to foreign countries lending their expertise. Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle on Thursday, Ceres said the entity has been working with a number of projects and companies including Guyana Goldfields, Troy Resources and even the Amaila Falls Hydro project.
“Our track record speaks for itself. Because we do not work for the government, persons might think we do not exist… we are not involved in public sector projects, people do not know that we are around,”Ceres told this newspaper.

The company’s outstanding track record has seen it being selected in April this year by Fugro, a Dutch geotechnical company that offers survey, subsea, and geoscience services for clients, including oil and gas, telecommunications cable, and infrastructure companies. Currently, GSEC engineers are conducting geotechnical laboratory tests on soil samples recovered during the Liza 1 geotechnical drilling programme.

The Fugro-GSEC partnership agreement is expected to build up the local content of Guyana to allow Fugro to train GSEC staff to provide services to the oil and gas market as they expand their presence in Guyana. The local company has provided six soil technicians and the engineers to work on the marine geotechnical investigation for the Liza Field development, for ExxonMobil.

But according to Ceres, his company has been involved in what has been going on offshore, even before the discovery of oil by the U.S. oil company. He said the company’s geotechnical lab is the most modern in the entire Caribbean, including the University of the West Indies.

LOCAL CONTENT
According to Ceres, GSEC has been focusing on local content because it feels the need to provide that. The company, he said, has expended resources to ensure it is able to fulfil the need for local content.
“Too often people think that they should be given opportunities because they are Guyanese. But we are saying that we are equipping ourselves with the tools to be ready to respond,” he told the Guyana Chronicle.
“A lot of people are talking about local content, but not about their ability to respond. You cannot expect people to come to you and say because you are Guyanese you are entitled to something. You have to be able to respond to the needs,” he said, adding that “if you need geotechnical expertise, we can provide that because we have the ability to respond.”
The GSEC staff was trained globally by Fugro to enhance their expertise and competencies between the period of March to June this year. The training will continue to progressively extend GSEC capacity to respond to demands for local content providers.
According to GSEC, the team will collect, organise and interpret project-critical, geotechnical and environmental data, both onshore and offshore for companies like ExxonMobil.

Fugro’s partnership with GSEC has resulted in training in the Fugro Houston soils laboratory for six members of GSEC staff; basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training (BOSIET) certification for 10 members of GSEC staff; Panamanian Seaman Book training for six members of GSEC staff; and Protected Species (marine mammals and seabird) certification for two biologists on GSEC staff, provided by ExxonMobil.
GSEC staff is currently conducting geotechnical laboratory tests on soil samples recovered during the Liza 1 geotechnical drilling programme. The intent is to confirm the competence of the laboratory technicians to replicate the results produced by Fugro and to utilise the laboratory for additional soil tests in the future based on that competence.

GSEC is also constructing a new building at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, to meet the growing needs in Guyana. It is 10,000 sq. feet of new, developed office space that will have a soils and materials laboratory. All GSEC drilling operations will be operated out of the location. The building will also house an electronic lab and repository for the storage of all geotechnical, geosciences and environmental projects undertaken by GSEC/Fugro.
Fugro is said to be the world’s leading independent provider of geo-intelligence and asset-integrity solutions for large construction, infrastructural and natural resources-based projects. It has been servicing the oil and gas sector in Guyana since 1991, when work was conducted on the Geochemical Survey of the Waini River area, Pomeroon Block.