–over 1,000 persons set to benefit

TELECOMMUNICATIONS giant, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), together with the Guyana Oil and Gas Energy Chamber (GOGEC), on Wednesday, launched the “Youth in Oil and Gas Training Programme,” which is geared at educating and preparing young learners for Guyana’s oil and gas sector.

GTT has contributed $24 million to the 14-month initiative, which is expected benefit over 1,000 Grades 11 and 12 students and first year university learners from across 50 different educational institutions.

This initiative is considered a major step in Guyana’s push towards developing the necessary human resources to create local content benchmarks.
As it is now, Guyana is challenged to demand local content from oil and gas companies in several areas, given that the country does not have the necessary skillset in many areas.

Speaking at the launch of the initiative, GTT’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Damian Blackburn, said that, given what this initiative would mean for Guyana, GTT was elated to get on board with the project.

“As soon as I heard of this initiative, I thought this is the right thing to do. I was so pleased and privileged that the GOGEC board allowed us to participate in this. To me it is everything that GTT is about. We want to participate in the latest and beautiful opportunity that this country has,” Blackburn commented.

The initiative, which will take on the form of weekend seminars, is scheduled to commence from the first Saturday in January, and is expected to be held successive Saturdays throughout 2022, with approximately 30 students expected to attend each seminar.

“The story of oil needs to flow everywhere in the country. GOGEC recognises that it is not enough to just think it’s going to happen, you have to go out and talk to the students about the opportunities that are in their grasp. If we don’t go and engage they won’t know,” Blackburn reasoned.

President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, further highlighted the importance of education, and commended the entities for creating the initiative.

“When it comes to talking about something like education and training, I am always up for supporting it. We need all the help we can to help bring that level of insight to educate people in the country and show them the opportunities. The future of the country, of sustainable development in Guyana are the people,” Routledge said.

The inaugural seminar for the project was held in November, and was attended by students from the Annandale Secondary School and Apex Education. During this session, students were able to acquire basic knowledge of the economy, how the oil and gas value chain operates, and the various opportunities that exist for them.

At the inaugural session, presenters included Financial Analyst, Joel Bhagwandin; Senior Petroleum Coordinator at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Bobby Gossai; Partner of Atlantic Oilfield Services, Sherif Alghali; Chairman of the International Energy Conference and Expo, Tony Whyte and Consultant, Roubinder Rambarran.

UNINFORMED
GOGEC President, Manniram Prashad, during his remarks at the official launch of the training programme, said that coming out of that inaugural session, through comments from the students, organisers realised just how much many Guyanese students remain uninformed about what the oil and gas sector in Guyana truly entails, and are only aware of broad aspects.

“All we are talking about is 120,000 barrels per day, environment, 10 billion reserves etcetera, nobody is explaining to these youthful minds the concept and what is in it for Guyana. That is why we are happy that GTT is doing this wonderful corporate social responsibility. The students will have to be developed and trained to take over the oil and gas sector. At the same time we have to be realistic about what we can do and what we can’t do,” Maniram said.

Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat was a speaker at the event, which was attended by President Dr. Irfaan Ali and several members of the private sector.

During his remarks, he spoke of the important role this initiative will play in building Guyana’s local content capacity.

Minister Bharrat said that while the government would be happy to demand maximum local content from companies involved in the oil and gas sector, Guyana has to be realistic and acknowledge limitations in the availability of the necessary resources to fill the sector.

“It is initiatives like these that will build our oil and gas sector and realise true local content for Guyanese. I particularly like the approach of starting with students. There is this common thought among school children that science and technology are difficult. That is detrimental for Guyana as we seek to grow our natural resources sector,” Minister Bharrat said.

He added: “We can only change that by going into the schools and showing them the advantages and the benefits of being in the natural resources sector. That is why I like this approach where we start the training at a very young age to achieve true local content.”

The government will table Guyana’s draft Local Content Legislation in Parliament after the conclusion of critical consultations.