Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Captain Gerald Gouveia Jr., says the local private sector is actively working with the government to identify new areas of opportunity in the oil and gas industry that Guyanese businesses can dominate.
During a recent episode of the Starting Point Podcast – The Oil and Gas Edition – Gouveia Jr. noted that the PSC is currently assessing which industries local businesses have the capacity to take on as the oil and gas sector grows.
“What we don’t want to see happen is that we say, okay, we want to do all of the undersea framework, but we don’t have the ability to do it,” he said.
He outlined that Guyana’s local content legislation, which was enacted in 2021, has already allowed Guyanese businesses to secure work in the 40 areas carved out for local participation.
“The good news is that with the local content legislation, it really gives us the opportunity to partake in oil and gas without being in oil and gas; you’re in the periphery industries around oil and gas, whether that’s logistics or accommodation,” he stated.
The PSC Chairman further noted that since the local content legislation was passed, some benchmarks for services from local businesses had been slightly adjusted, from about 10% to around 20%. He also noted that additional services were introduced on a trial basis to determine whether Guyanese businesses can fully deliver those services.
“I think that we, as Guyanese people, are very good at taking advantage of the opportunities when presented, and now we have a plethora of opportunities in front of us…we already have things like a heavy participation in things like warehousing, accommodation and offices,” he noted.
Further, Gouveia Jr. stated that in order for local businesses to capitalise on the growth of the oil and gas sector, local companies have been forming partnerships with international firms, whether it’s for capital, technology or human resources.
The PSC chair stated that new opportunities are emerging where Guyanese businesses can thrive. He listed areas such as specialised equipment, transportation of hazardous materials, data and technology, laydown yards, shipping, and vessels.
“These now start to become real opportunities for Guyanese as we find our international partners. So currently we’re going through that, that process of identifying industries and identifying opportunities, and very shortly, you’re going to see us do our official submission to the government in terms of how we would like to expand the local content legislation,” he noted.