THE scope and importance of the global oil industry can have a massive impact on regions in which it operates. This is especially true when local businesses join in the virtuous cycle of capacity-building that leads to globally recognised expertise and technical capabilities.
This cycle has created important industries, largely from scratch in places like northern Scotland, which had virtually no oil-and-gas service industry before the first major commercial drilling in the North Sea during the 1970s. Within a few decades, Scottish cities like Aberdeen were transformed from traditional fishing towns into international centres for the energy industry.

Since 1970, the industry has contributed more than £330B in production taxes to the United Kingdom. Aberdeen now hosts more than 900 companies in the oil-and-gas industry, including many of the most important global services firms, which specialise in everything from helicopter transport to deep-sea infrastructure. Meanwhile, the technical knowledge that was developed to meet the needs of the oil industry has made it into a thriving centre of offshore wind technology, geophysical research, and advanced engineering.

The city’s universities now host globally recognised oil-and-gas programmes that have educated oil-and-gas experts across the world, including the Guyana Department of Energy’s Oil and Gas Adviser, Matthew Wilks.

How is this relevant for Guyana? Last week, Guyson’s Oil and Gas and Guyson’s Engineering became one of the first Guyanese companies to attain the prestigious ISO 9001:2015 certification, an internationally recognised certificate of quality in the oil-and-gas service industry. The certificate or compliance is often required for suppliers to conduct industry business. This landmark achievement by a local company is a hopeful sign that Guyana is on the early part of the same path Scotland embarked on years ago.
It also has many in Guyana taking a second look at the organisation that helped facilitate Guyson’s certification– The Centre for Local Business Development (CLBD). The CLBD is an ExxonMobil-funded effort to help local firms learn about opportunities in the oil-and-gas sector, increase their competitiveness through training and capacity-building, and eventually join the oil production supply chain.

CLBD offers classes for local business owners on topics like offshore oil and gas, and how to navigate the procurement process with international oil-and-gas firms as well as more specialised classes on health, safety, and environmental issues relevant to oil-and-gas service companies.

It also offers a supplier registration portal for companies that want to be ExxonMobil’s or their prime contractor’s suppliers. Those registered in the portal are alerted by email and text to general information, and requests for expressions of interest for upcoming openings. The CLBD also offers training sessions on how to manage human resources, supply chains, and finances.

Over a thousand local companies have already registered with the CLBD, and many are taking full advantage of what the centre has to offer.

Since no Guyanese company has significant experience in providing services to offshore oil development, CLBD can be a valuable resource for Guyanese companies looking to get a foothold in a massive but highly technical new industry.

Hopefully, Guysons is just the first of several Guyanese companies in the oil-and-gas industry that will receive the ISO 9001:2015 certification, as four more companies are currently working with the CLBD to undergo the rigorous quality checks necessary to get certification from the International Organisation for Standardisation, and prepare for third-party auditing of ISO 9000 by an independent certification body.

The CLBD also facilitates meetings between international companies and Guyanese businesses, a critical function, since so many of the opportunities in oil-and-gas are in subcontracting rather than working directly for the oil producer.

The type of local technical capacity that the CLBD helps develop is important for the long-term; both for the Guyanese economy and for the oil industry itself. Scotland was fortunate to begin oil extraction with the advantages of an advanced industrial base and a highly educated workforce. Organisations like CLBD can provide valuable resources to help Guyanese companies and individuals transform and grow with the new energy sector in Guyana.