Local Content Compliance Unit to be established

DPI, Guyana, Friday, August 30, 2019

Head of the Department of Energy, Dr Mark Bynoe has announced that the government plans to establish a Local Content Compliance Office.

He was at the time addressing new students of the University of Guyana’s Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences during an orientation exercise.

The unit, he explained, will validate the information submitted by oil companies operating in Guyana’s basin.  “How do you know if Exxon has employed 1,357 people, how many of Guyanese origin are actually employed… we are setting up a Local Content Compliance Unit which will help us to validate and to determine if the information we’re getting from the operators is authentic.”

This disclosure comes shortly after the third draft of the proposed Local Content Policy was released. The draft stipulations operators must provide yearly Local Content Plans.

According to an OilNOW report, this would include “recent performance and current market information, including from primary contractors, describing estimated levels and activities and programs for the utilisation of local content for the upcoming year.”

Additionally, the policy draft outlines the expectation that operators and industry players will collaborate with the government to review the  Local Content Plans and Reports; explore “what is working in delivering local content, what can be improved and when to make appropriate adjustments to a plan or to government policy or initiatives, and to identify new areas of local content opportunity.”

The Energy Director also advised the students to consider diversifying their careers in the oil and gas sector. Dr. Bynoe told the students that “there are a multiplicity of skills and range of expertise that will be required.”

“We will also need persons from the EPA; we will need financial analysts, even the lawyers and the management specialist. Why am I saying this? Because many of us think that unless you are a geological engineer unless you are a geologist or a mechanical engineer, I will not benefit from oil and gas. And I say, you will benefit once you make the sacrifice,” Dr. Bynoe emphasised.

Source: OilNOW