— investment to create some 450 jobs

A LOCALLY-LED consortium of businesses, on Wednesday evening, officially launched a new company, Pipe Coating Guyana Inc. (PCG) that will create over 400 jobs and cater to the local oil and gas industry.
This was disclosed during the launch at the Guyana Marriott Hotel in Kingston. PCG Inc was founded by a group of Guyanese led by Suresh Jagmohan, who is the owner of S. Jagmohan Hardware Supplies and Construction Services.
The group approached two international pipe coating specialists to support PCG, and, as such, the project will see the operationalisation of a state-of-the-art facility to support the deep-water harbour and plans for the new gas-to-shore project in Guyana.
According to PCG Director, Narine Tulshi, after the company was established, they had engaged two world class companies to partner in the implementation of the plans and thus combine the experience in civil works and the two foreign companies’ decades of expertise in pipe-coating and thermal insulations.
“This joint venture will include a collective investment of approximately $US40 Million comprising of some of the world’s most technical pipe-coating equipment, managed by a team of world-renowned engineers and oil and gas experts,” Tulshi said.
The international companies, WASCO Energy and Patagonia Shale Services (PSS) joined the local consortium as minority partners with some 49 per cent of the shares which, Tulshi noted, was in keeping with Guyana’s new local content law.
He further revealed that some 450 jobs will be created from the venture and will add to the thousands that have already been created by the local partners throughout Guyana.
Meanwhile, Director of Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest), Dr Peter Ramsaroop, in brief remarks at the launching, stated that this collaboration between the consortium and the international partners was in keeping with President, Dr Irfaan Ali’s vision of creating jobs for the people of Guyana.
Additionally, present at the launch was Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, who told the gathering that such an investment was quite important as it related to both local content and the oil and gas sector here.
Minister Indar said that having a coating facility here in Guyana will cut out the additional step of having pipes set for offshore destinations being coated in other countries and then sent to Guyana, thus reducing costs associated with importing same. “So, it cuts out that and brings the service in country,” the minister said.
He further added that when these joint ventures are done in such technical sectors, Guyanese benefit as it means that foreign technicians will come to train persons here and the knowledge will be passed on. Indar then noted that such was the example that many Guyanese businesses should follow.
“So here is a prime example of what the local content legislation is driving in Guyana. It is really delivering prosperity to everyone,” the minister said.
According to the officials, the first intended location for the pipe-coating facility in Guyana was expected to be on the East Bank of Demerara in the vicinity of the Guyana Shore Base Inc (GYSBI). The company has intentions to then expand to West Demerara in the near future.