–over 500 Guyanese to be trained in the first few years
–3000 applications already in the system

GUYANESE-owned Oilfield Services, TotalTec has turned the sod for its multi-million dollar International Petroleum and Maritime Academy with the aim of accelerating recruitment, development and employment of Guyanese into the oil and gas industry through career orientations.

It was literally a “ground-breaking” ceremony on Thursday when Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman did the symbolic sod-turning, opposite the Gafoors Complex at Houston.

TotalTec recently secured the lot to construct the first academy of its kind here, but had already acquired a small centre at the Gafoors complex from their partners, one of the largest oilfield services company in the world, Schlumberger.
“We estimate that over the coming year the investment to get this all up and running which includes the facility, the cost of setting up all the training materials and so forth will cost close to USD$3-$5 million,” said Chief Executive Officer of TotalTec, Lars Mangal, who is a Guyanese.

He said most of the finance will be spent on procuring training equipment, but a number of local and international companies have signaled their interest in contributing models, simulators, training materials and even instructors.

The recent discovery of oil off the shores of Guyana by ExxonMobil and its joint venture partners HESS and CNOOC Nexen has created a new industry for Guyanese to invest in and be a part of. The investor as such believes that the facility will be highly beneficial to the locals.

“We expect to have around 500 Guyanese come through this centre over the next few years,” said Mangal.

SCOTTISH COMPANY
A five-year contract has been granted to an experienced Scottish company–First Competence Limited Aberdeen–which will facilitate the training programmes.

According to Mangal, the team from First Competence is already in Guyana, but they are not the exclusive training partner because they are expected to have a lot of other companies which will participate in the training and delivery of programmes to Guyanese.
“First Competence is going to be providing us with three instructors to do training on the ground in conjunction with two/three Guyanese instructors that will be second instructors as we train them,” he said.

The CEO explained that they have already received 3000 applications from persons who are interested in working on ExxonMobil’s shore base at the Muneshwers Wharf.
“We will be diligent with who we recruit and how we train them… at the same time we will be open to putting on training programmes and sending them through the academy,” he explained.

There will be 120 basic operator training programmes and other training programmes that will look at health and safety.
Second Vice President of TotalTec, Brian Chia said the programmes will be ideal to train Guyanese to be ready for the industry.

“We want to train them, work with local companies to accelerate their participation in the oil industry and we will work with international companies that want to participate,” said Chia.
He referred to companies like Muneshwers that capitalised on the opportunity and got large contracts with Exxon.

“Even our company is an example… we started about a year and a quarter back and Mangal decided that it was a good time to come back and we did and took a big risk because it was only one discovery of oil and no plan for development,” Chia explained.
As seen in other parts of the world, oil and gas is a long term business so, with that in mind, Mangal and his partner took the risk and got one of the largest contracts that ExxonMobil has given in Guyana.

Similarly, their intent is to ensure that Guyanese benefit from the industry by starting the courses between March and April this year.

According to Chia, the first 25 Guyanese will be employed by them to go through a nine-week training course after which they will be deployed to various jobs in the industry if they successfully complete the course. He said if there are no immediate jobs, persons will remain on their payroll and will work on the shore base until they get a job.

TotalTec has already preselected the first batch of persons but they are awaiting the arrival of training equipment from the United Kingdom (UK).

SUGAR WORKERS TO BENEFIT
Minister Trotman had urged the investors to partner with local academic institutions like the University of Guyana (UG) in order to help Guyana “delink” and go through the “pains” of rightsizing the sugar industry.

“We have able-bodied men and women who can make a contribution to the oil and gas industry which will replace sugar,” said the minister.

Both Chia and Mangal acknowledged what the minister said and added that they intend to take in people like the sugar workers who are good technicians and mechanics. They said they will work with the sugar workers to change their mindset to be more safety conscious and train them in other oil-specific skills.

Minister Trotman encouraged the investors to support Guyanese and the Government because they need “all hands on deck” to develop the local oil and gas industry.
He said the Government stands ready to ensure that there is a steady flow of applicants and persons who will work on the oil rigs and onshore in various aspects of the industry.