…eyes December deadline for submission

UNITED States oil and gas exploration company Exxon Mobil is still working on its Local Content Policy, but is prepared to present it to the government by the December 2017 deadline, Senior Director for Public and Government Affairs Kimberly Brasington told the Guyana Chronicle.

Brasington told this newspaper that the U.S. oil company is currently working on the content of the plan, which has already laid out three areas of focus. These include plans for supplier development, whereby the company will examine ways through which it will develop local Guyanese suppliers to participate in the local tender process.
The company also has plans for workforce development. This will examine areas of development for all staff of Exxon Mobil, including Guyanese. The oil company will also seek to give back through social projects.

Brasington reiterated her company’s plan to upgrade the policy each year.
“We will submit the plan… It always changes. The plan will be an idea of what we think is possible. But we will update that plan every year, based on the growing capacity and the stage of the project,” she told this newspaper.
Last week, Exxon’s President Stephen Greenlee said that it is committed to building local capacity in Guyana. Greenlee told journalists in New York that the exploration company is aiming to have more than 90 per cent of its activities run by Guyanese when production starts in 2020.

Though he was unable to state the number of Guyanese currently in the employ of ExxonMobil, Greenlee gave the assurance that the numbers will climb once production kicks in.
“So our goal is when we are up and running in Guyana, and we have the projects, and we have the actual production activities occurring, our goal is to be like all the other places where we would have employed over 90 per cent nationals in our activities,” the ExxonMobil President said. According to him, the development of local content is of significant importance to the oil-producing company, noting that more contracts will be made available to Guyanese contractors.

“One of our top priorities is tried [sic] to build a local capacity,” he emphasised. Greenlee’s commitment comes days after Trinidadian Consultant Anthony Paul told Guyanese stakeholders that the local-content policy that the Government is currently drafting must benefit all Guyanese. Local content can be described as the materials and workers that are used to make a product, in this case, the production of oil.

Back in June, after being granted its production licence by government, ExxonMobil was given six months to present its local content plan. Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, had said that the plan would cover the years leading up to production in 2020. “So that we will know how local content, both in terms of employment and procurement, and the provision of goods and services will be phased into this project over the next three years going into production,” Minister Trotman had said.

Additionally, Minister Trotman pointed out that the draft Local Content Policy has already been shared with the private sector as part of facilitating consultations before it is taken to the National Assembly.