— Minister Indar urges Guyanese businesses to tap opportunities in logistics, training, technical services, natural gas

GUYANESE businesses should look beyond direct participation in oil production and position themselves to capture opportunities emerging in logistics, specialised training, certification, transportation, warehousing, technical services and natural gas, Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar has said.
Speaking at the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI)’s Energy Luncheon on Thursday, Indar said the expansion of Guyana’s petroleum sector has created a much wider ecosystem of economic activity that local businesses can leverage.
The luncheon, held under the theme, “Beyond the Barrel – Oil, Gas, Growth and the Guyanese Contractor”, brought together business leaders, contractors, decision-makers and other industry stakeholders to examine what Guyanese companies must do to compete and scale within the rapidly evolving sector.
Indar urged businesses to examine the movement of people, equipment and services generated by petroleum activities, and identify opportunities along that value chain.
These include training and certification, accommodation, catering, waste disposal, transportation, logistics, warehousing, equipment maintenance and other specialised services.
The Minister said oil and gas has served as a catalyst for wider economic expansion, pointing to the double-digit growth recorded in recent years, and the 33 per cent expansion of the economy during the first half of 2026.
“In no part of Guyana’s history, since data capture started, has Guyana recorded sustained growth ever before,” Indar said.
He said the economic impact of petroleum extends well beyond the sector itself.
“It is the greatest prosperity that any country can witness. And you need to be happy about that. It’s not every day you have good news like that,” he said, adding:
“As I started by saying, 2016 into 2019 was around four per cent. And it is because of that catalyst. And I call it the catalyst, because oil and gas is the catalytical thing that spawns the tentacles of economic development throughout.”
TRAINING IS BUSINESS
Indar pointed to the Local Content framework and expanded oil-and-gas training and education as measures taken by the Government to increase Guyanese participation in the sector.
However, he said opportunities remain for private businesses to provide specialised training required by offshore workers.
“A lot of the people, before they go on water, they have to have T-BOSIET training. They have OPITO training. They have to have STCW training. Before they even go on a helicopter or a boat or anything working out, they must have these training,” he said.
“So, the first opportunity is such a training opportunity for businesses to train people,” he added.
Accommodation and relocation services are another area for expansion, given the number of workers moving through Guyana to offshore operations.
“Everybody that passes through Guyana, the back-to-back, they have to come here; they have to be housed, and then they have to be placed offshore,” Indar said.
LOGISTICS, TRANSPORT AND WAREHOUSING
Transportation and logistics also offer significant room for Guyanese businesses, the Minister said.
“Transportation on land is big opportunity. Transportation by sea is another big opportunity where you have folks that are getting involved in PSV operations, tugboat operations,” he said.
Indar also identified visa-processing and brokerage services associated with the movement of foreign workers as areas where businesses could find opportunities.
“Brokerage, processing visas, all the people that come and work in there, they had to get visas to work. They have to move them around, carry them back. This opportunity is there,” he said.
Warehousing is another growing requirement, including facilities capable of providing temperature-controlled storage.
“You have certain kinds of warehousing. You have the one that is, you have to have cooling. You have the ones that are just normal temperature. But warehousing is a big thing,” Indar said.
TECHNICAL SERVICES
The Minister also encouraged businesses to explore more specialised technical services, including inspection, testing and certification.
He explained that equipment and components used in offshore operations must undergo rigorous inspection and certification before they can be placed into service.
“Every sling has to be certified and tested periodically. You have to certify those,” Indar said.
“Every part, component part, changed on those vessels that are operating and equipment on shore… need to be tested and certified, or it cannot be put into operation.”
Cleaning and maintenance of tanks and other heavy-duty equipment also represent potential business opportunities.
“The cleaning of the tanks for all of the vessels. All of those things are services that people need in the sector,” he said.
Instrumentation and calibration are other specialised areas in which Indar said greater local capacity could be developed.
“Instrumentation, everything has to be calibrated, tested. And it has to be done by competent authority,” he said.
“We do not have people in Guyana that are doing this. Those are opportunities. If you are looking for where the opportunities are lying outside of the barrel, these are things.”
OPPORTUNITIES IN NATURAL GAS
Indar said the same approach should be taken as Guyana develops its natural-gas industry.
Beyond supplying the Wales Gas-to-Energy project, he said natural gas presents opportunities for further monetisation through products and services that could support other industries.
He identified cooking gas, fertiliser, isobutane and refrigerant gases among potential products, while compressed natural gas (CNG) could be utilised in transportation.
Storage, dredging, pipeline maintenance and other supporting services could also provide opportunities as the natural-gas industry expands.
“When you have more gas coming in, you have more monetisation and by-products of the molecules,” Indar said.
“You have to extract those molecules and monetise them. And those are where the opportunities lie.”
His message to the business community was that Guyana’s petroleum industry should not be viewed solely through oil production, but as a platform from which numerous supporting industries and services can develop.
For Guyanese businesses, he said, identifying those needs and building the expertise and capacity to meet them will be key to capturing more of the opportunities created by the country’s continuing economic transformation.