TOTALTEC Academy will today launch its inaugural Oilfield Operator Training Programme (OTP) with 24 young Guyanese recruits.
The academy is strategically located at the heart of the emerging and developing oil-and-gas hub at Houston, Greater Georgetown, adjacent to the recently developed and now operational shore base for ExxonMobil, Guyana Shore Base Inc.
Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman conducted the ground-breaking ceremony on February 8, 2018 during the Guyana International Petroleum Business Summit and Exhibition (GIPEX 2018), as the patron of the newly established Oilfield Service Training Academy.

According to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TOTALTEC, Lars Mangal, the “amazing speed” at which the TOTALTEC team has been able to complete its first field classroom of the academy, develop the 60 courses which will be part of the OTP programme and recruit 24 Guyanese candidates to become the future workers of our oil-and-gas industry must be commended.

“The OTP programme will be run by two dedicated, highly experienced international instructors with over 40 years of experience in the industry between them. From basic safety, through to specific environmental practices and technical training on specialised lifting operations, rigging and slinging and forklift driving will be included in the programme,” Mangal, a Guyanese, told this newspaper.
Mangal said that the OTP programme will run for just under three months, during which recruits will be fully immersed in every aspect of basic operational and safety training required in the industry. This is to ensure that every recruit will be given the opportunity to develop and perform to the world-class standards expected in the international oil-and-gas industry.

“Academy recruits will have the opportunity to be exposed to a number of highly experienced oil-and-gas industry professionals and learn from them along with determining and developing their own career aspirations and ambitions,” said Mangal.
The Chairman and CEO of TOTALTEC believes this is a unique opportunity for TOTALTEC and other companies involved in the emerging oil-and-gas industry of Guyana to contribute to the development of an accelerated participation of Guyanese in its own industry.
“Typically, without this catalyst to accelerate local-content development being established, one would not see a strong participation of Guyanese for years to come, which would be a missed opportunity,” Mangal said.

Industry sources said that the programme which has been developed is a unique one, in that it has never been done with this level of commitment and investment towards local-content development in any emerging oil-and-gas market around the world.