–further amendments to promote use of more local services
SMALL and medium-scale businesses operating in the field of logistics and transportation have been benefiting significantly from the oil and gas sector, Senior Petroleum Coordinator at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Bobby Gossai Jr. has said.
This has been credited to the country’s extensive Local Content Act that was instituted in 2021 to ensure that Guyanese businesses benefitted directly from the country’s growing petroleum industry.

“We have seen the growth in the establishment of more infrastructure, support, and the service sector. We have seen major businesses that have been established, we have seen the establishment of the Local Content Secretariat and the approval of Local Content Certificates,” Gossai said during a recent virtual discussion held with Guyana’s Ghanaian counterparts.
He further said that Guyana is looking to further build its local content capacity to not just benefit the country’s oil and gas sector but also other industries.

Gossai related that the local content act has earned the country massive revenue with millions being accumulated from offshore investments, prime contractors, and sub-contractors working in the industry.
Meanwhile, Guyana is expected to update its local content legislation in the coming months. The update to the local content law will likely include new provisions that reflect the lessons learned since its enactment, the progress made in many areas and the remaining challenges.

“The law will be adjusted to include other areas, new opportunities that we have seen have grown over the years. And by the end of 2022, it would have reached the stage where these businesses/services can be provided in the country. And we will, of course, not only add new areas to the schedule but also amend the targets that we would have set originally back in 2022,” Gossai said.
With this new turning point for Guyana and the industry, it is anticipated that the country will see even more local companies providing logistics and manpower services for increasingly high-skilled industry segments.

On December 31, 2021, the Government of Guyana passed the Local Content Act 2021.
Subsequently, it published several related guidelines that were designed to maximise the participation of Guyanese companies wherever they have the skills and capacity to get involved, beginning with services such as office space rental, janitorial services, laundry and catering services, pest control services, insurance services, supply of food and accounting services and extending through long-term involvement in highly skilled subsectors like subsea installation, geophysical analysis and engineering.