Minister Deodat Indar (left) on a tour of the shore base site yesterday
April 15 ,2021
Hoping to further boost local content as all heavy-lifting and storage works will be transferred to Guyana from the current location in Trinidad and Tobago, the Guyana Shore Base Inc (GYSBI) is forging ahead with expansion as it adds two specialty berthing facilities set to cost some US$16 million.
“This is a US$16 million project here, of which I have clarified from the developers is for local contractors and sand provi-ders, transportation…local people are getting that. Those constructions will generate at least 140 full- time workers [when completed]. That is work for Guyanese people,” Minis-ter in the Ministry of Public Works Deodat Indar told reporters during a site visit yesterday.
“As you know, heavy lifts have been done in Chaguaramas or Galeota [port] in Trinidad and all of the services associated with it, whether it was transportation, crane services, logistics, brokerage, all done in Trinidad and then put on vessels and then it goes straight offshore. With this development now, it will happen in Guyana at the Guyanese wharf. I am very pleased with what I am seeing,” he added.
The Minister yesterday visited the GYSBI facility where, after a two-and-a-half-year construction project was held up by the APNU+AFC government, works have resumed as was planned in 2019.
GYSBI is a consortium comprising Muneshwer’s Limited, TOTALTEC Oilfield Services, Pacific Rim Constructors, and LED Offshore. Its current Houston, East Bank Demerara 30-acre property, where operations began in 2017, was purchased from timber company Caribbean Resources Limited in 2014, for US$20 million.
In a 2019 interview with Stabroek News, GYSBI Partner Robin Muneshwer had pointed to an increase from a two to four-berth facility that would operate on a 24-hour basis at the Houston waterfront property, and it had formed part of a US$100 million planned second phase of expansion.
When the company had announced the US$100 million expansion of its operations here, General Manager Mark Edwards had informed also that plans were in place to invest a further US$50 million ($10.4 billion) in the next 12 months.
Those plans included the purchase of an additional 100 acres of land located in the same area that the proposed facility is to be constructed.
Yesterday, Muneshwer lamented how the project was stalled for two years and that during that period much could have been accomplished that would have assisted in furthering local content opportunities.
However, he said that the company was pleased that works have resumed and they will forge ahead full throttle.
The APNU+AFC government had put a hold on all waterfront oil and gas works along the Demerara River and GYSBI’s planned project was further stalled by the then government’s plans to have the New Demerara Harbour Bridge land in close proximity to the facility.
The political impasse last year only served to add to the development impediments and matters were further complicated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This construction represents an expansion of our present activities. It is very significant construction because it is waterfront which is the key to shore base operations. Each berth represents about 70 additional jobs when it becomes fully operational. We have currently 350 jobs and more than 95 per cent local. These jobs: slingers banksmen, operators … etcetera, will be local,” Muneshwer said.
“We were stalled for two years. There was a hold up on waterfront construction on the East Bank of Demerara and we were caught in that dragnet. Two and half years!” he exclaimed.
GYSBI had last year applied to the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a shipping container handling and workshop facility near the Houston shore base to repair heavy-duty equipment.
When the PPP/C came into office, he said that they had about 13 permits waiting and those were approved. “They vetted all, ensured all were in order and granted them.”
Explaining that the technology used in the construction of the additional berths was new age and state of the art, he said that it gives locals the exposure needed to keep abreast of global upgrades in the sector.
“The technology is new. It will allow us to do things that could previously be only done in Trinidad. All the heavy lifts will be done here, stored here and then transferred [offshore].
The design was done by a foreign engineering firm because it is new technology to Guyana so that is the major component that had to be done from outside, because we didn’t have anyone in Guyana to do it. But they are transferring that technology to us and that is what we wanted,” he added.
It should be noted that even with GSYBI’s planned expansions, ExxonMobil has stated that according to their projections of a production of 220,000 barrels of oil per day from 2023 and 500,000 by 2025, the shore base alone will not suffice for its needs and it had last month advertised for firms to offer additional onshore support services capabilities.