By Ravin Singh

THE discovery of oil reserves offshore Guyana, which is likely to elevate the country’s economic conditions, is not the only benefit to be derived from the exploration and subsequent production. In fact, Guyanese will also benefit from training in the petroleum industry while direct employment opportunities are imminent, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman has said.Minister Trotman made this announcement on Wednesday, as he was addressing the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources. With ExxonMobil’s announcement of significant oil reserves just offshore Guyana; the country is awaiting the impending exploration which is likely to result in an elevation in the standard of living of Guyanese.

But while the direct benefits will be the royalties from the production of that mineral, secondary benefits including training for Guyanese in that sector, and employment opportunities will also be forthcoming.

In fact, the Minister revealed that some amount of training has already been ongoing.

“There has been some training going on” he said, when quizzed on whether Guyanese will be befitting from training.

Earlier on Wednesday, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon said at a post-Cabinet press briefing that ExxonMobil has indicated to the Government that it plans to train Guyanese in various spheres of activity associated with petroleum exploration and production.

In addition, just recently Minister of Education, Dr Rupert Roopnarine announced that his Ministry in conjunction with the University of Guyana (UG) will be establishing a special facility or school for oil and gas exploration.

And according to Trotman, he will be meeting with administrative staff of the country’s premier tertiary institution to accelerate efforts in that regards.

He also outlined several other benefits including scholarships which have been offered through the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), where the government will be affording students the opportunity to be trained in this industry.

The Natural Resources Minister said too that the Mexican Petroleum Institute visited Guyana within the last month and government is exploring the option of acquiring scholarships for Guyanese at that institution.

Additionally, he noted that as part of the new dispensation, government continues to stress on ExxonMobil that it must be involved in training, which will not be done after production, but rather “pre-production”.

“As part of the new dispensation, we have stressed to the company that they must be involved in training, and not after production; pre-production. We are doing as best we can to train as many people as possible. I should add that many Guyanese who already work in the oil and gas industry in other parts of the world are expressing their willingness to come home,” the Minister said.

Employment
Meanwhile, Country manager of ESSO – an affiliate of ExxonMobil – Jeff Simon, boasted of having an 80 per cent local workforce in other countries where the oil giant operates. And although he was keen to note that this type of project does not demand a large workforce, Simon said that Guyanese will still benefit from employment opportunities.

He explained that not a lot of Guyanese were employed during the drilling of the first well, but that this was significantly improved during drilling of the second well since operations were expanded.

“It’s not an enormous number of people that are required to run this kind of ship,” Simon said, referencing the ship which will be offshore during production. However, he pointed to the fact that the company currently utilizes local suppliers for a number of products.

“We’re currently by millions of dollars in fuel here in Guyana. A lot of the food, or almost all of the food come from local suppliers. There is also security, transportation, hotels…” he said, adding that there are currently over 300 Guyanese who are in the employ of the company.
Review
Meanwhile, Minister Trotman also revealed that Government has indicated to the company that they would like to have some changes made to the existing contract.

He noted that while the 1999 agreement between the then Government and the company was the best agreement that could have been made by the executive, the present administration is seeking to modernize the existing agreement.

“Whatever we do will be in the best interest of Guyana; we’re not rejecting the last agreement, it was a good agreement. This is about adding some modern features to the agreement. It’s not a case of demanding and beating over the head of ExxonMobil. We both realise (that) we could look at the agreement again and move forward,” Minister Trotman said.