Guyana needs to expand shore base capabilities outside GT

Guyana needs to expand shore base capabilities outside GT – GYSBI GM

Mar 22, 2021 News

By Mikaila Prince

Kaieteur News- In order for the Guyana Shore Base (GYSBI) at Houston to adequately support the oil industry, the company’s General Manager, Sean Hill, says Guyana needs to expand its shore base capabilities outside of Georgetown.

GYSBI General Manager, Sean Hill

Hill shared these critical points during a panel discussion at the Guyana Basin Summit (GBS), last Thursday. This was a virtual three-day oil and gas conference which concluded on Friday. It was aimed at delivering networking and valuable insight into the region’s potential, its challenges and the road ahead.
For the readers’ enlightenment, a shore base is an onshore support facility that during drilling, development, maintenance and producing operations provide services to the oil companies. These services include handling waste management, chemical storage, warehousing, construction, berthing of supply vessels, cargo marshaling area, loading and offloading, supply chain management, expatriate management, and customs services.

Hill, in supporting the need for GYSBI to expand its capabilities beyond the capital city, informed the panel of the congestion around Georgetown, and added that Guyana’s oil industry is focused mainly on the Demerara River.

“There is quite a lot of mixing of various, services and products [being] supplied to the oil industry, mixing with residential zoning,” Hill explained. “We don’t have that differential zoning between an industrial sector and a residential sector.”

In moving forward, Hill states that Guyana now has to balance the current needs of ExxonMobil in its “challenging deepwater environment” with the current capabilities that exist today for the country. This, he notes, will put the country in a position to compete in an international environment.

The GYSBI official added, “That needs to be balanced off with the future plans of ExxonMobil offshore, who we know are going to be here for many decades to come. I do believe that we need to be looking outside of where we are today and expanding the capabilities just outside of Georgetown, and it needs to be done in a sustainable manner so that we don’t risk what is currently going on and all the great work that these people and companies have been putting into the industry.”

During his presentation, Hill also acknowledged that GYSBI’s inability to fully support the oil industry is a ripple effect of Guyana’s limited human resources. Hill indicated that the shore base facility is now faced with a situation where it is “impossible” to grasp all the necessary skills for environment.

Notwithstanding predicaments of congestion and a limited workforce, Hill says that GYSBI will continue to grow and develop Guyana’s local content, while seeking to support the needs of the nation’s oil industry.

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