WITH the help of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), a trade mission of private companies from the United Kingdom (UK) is expected to visit Guyana from Wednesday to forge relationships with local, emerging companies in the oil and gas sector.

This has been made possible following a visit from a group of GCCI business representatives to Aberdeen, Scotland, in November, 2018; the purpose of the visit was to explore partnership opportunities with businesses in the petroleum industry.

Leading the team of nine companies to Aberdeen was Senior Vice- President of the GCCI, Nicholas Boyer, who was accompanied by representatives of the Foreign Affairs Ministry; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the University of Guyana (UG).

Aberdeen is often called the “oil capital of Europe,” and has been experiencing a long-term oil boom since the mid-20th century. It is now home to one of the highest rates of millionaires per square mile in the UK.

In a recent interview with the newspaper, Boyer provided an update on the visit.

“The visit went very well and the UK itself is fielding a trade mission that is coming in on Wednesday. From our visit there, there was a lot of interest in Guyana,” he said.

“We [gave] a broad overview of the growing oil and gas industry in Guyana. What we’re trying to do is to take a sales approach, telling these companies that are in the UK that Guyana represents a very attractive opportunity for them to invest into.”

Speaking more about the group of visitors, he explained: “The team is a grouping of private companies who are looking for market opportunities for their particular services. [The initiative] is about creating direct, one-on-one trade relationships for our companies to be players in the oil and gas industry in Guyana [and for] UK companies to find partnerships to do business in Guyana.”

In the long run, Boyer believes that this will help to propel local businesses into a state of readiness for 2020, all of whom are entering the arena of the petroleum sector for the first time.

“In Guyana, we don’t have any history of an oil industry. We are consumers of processed oil and this is the first time we’ve ever had successful oil and gas explorations. Now that we’ve had successful explorations, we need a certain skillset to get that oil out of the ground and to support the companies to get that oil out of the ground,” he stated.
“The fastest way for us to get that skillset is to create these relationships. It allows our companies to find the right partners and they learn quickly and are able to offer new services.”

The team is expected to spend between two to three days in the country.

Boyer related that the UK businessmen are of the view that Guyana represents a very interesting market. “They see a lot of potential for growth. Of course, it’s a very young market, so they are very excited about it.”

The senior vice-president also told the newspaper that this is not the last of such shared visits Guyana will experience, as plans are in the pipeline for another such engagement to take place in the United States this year.

“One thing we’re going to do is to work on creating a more structured approach to getting our members from the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry connected to the companies in Scotland and the wider UK, so that more of these missions and connections can happen,” Boyer said, adding: “Our next plan is to make it to Houston [Texas].”

Houston is the headquarters for some 17 of the largest energy-related U.S. companies and is home to over 3,600 energy-related establishments.

Meanwhile, the GCCI represents some 240 companies, a number which has continued to increase over the years.