25 Guyanese being trained at Port Mourant facility to work on FPSOs

The first batch of 25 young Guyanese have commenced training at the FacTor Port Mourant facility in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), to prepare them for job opportunities in Guyana’s burgeoning oil and gas industry.

As a major step in Guyana’s local content push, these persons are specifically being trained to work on the floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels that are currently being used to produce oil offshore Guyana.
The Guyana Technical Training College Incorporated (GTTCI) and its Facility Simulator (FacTor) at Port Mourant, Berbice are the realisation of President Dr Irfaan Ali’s commitment to developing Guyanese skills for the expanding oil and gas sector.
Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud, who’s a former Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, recently visited the training facility, and was updated by Professor Clem Sankatt and FacTor Training Centre Manager Shaagul Hameeth on the activities and plans for the facility.
FacTor (Facility Simulator) is a secure, fully operational, live process plant that replicates the functions of an actual plant. It includes a Central Control Room (CCR), a marshalling cabinet, and a Motor Control Centre (MCC) cabinet, all powered by the latest DCS control system.
The simulator is designed for training, coaching, and assessment activities, allowing trainees to gain experience in operations, troubleshooting, and maintenance tasks such as loop testing, stroke checks, and calibration.
Trainees also follow a permit-to-work system and adhere to the same procedures and work orders as in real-world installations, as part of a Safe System of Work.

This serves as the final preparation by the Port Mourant-based GTTCI and its FACTOR oil and gas training facility, in collaboration with Exxon and SBM, to ready students for work on FPSOs offshore.
This initiative, Persaud said, will not only boost the Government’s drive to ensure more Guyanese take up jobs in the oil and gas sector, but will also attract the second-generation diaspora to utilize the expanding opportunities in the country.
The $2.6 billion training facility was commissioned in February by President Ali and other officials.
While GTTC will be used primarily for training in the oil and gas sector, the Head of State had noted that the aim is to broaden its capacity to provide training in other sectors as well.
“This is about the transformation of our country and the building of world-class facilities that would not only train and equip our human resources with the skillset, but give them world-class certification,” he had said. “When these young men and women leave this facility, they can be hired anywhere in the world. But we want you to stay here, that is why we are building a system that will allow you to stay here,” the President had told this first batch of 25 students, who have already undergone one year of training in Canada.
Some of the students in this first cohort of trainees were recruited from the GuySuCo Training College at Port Mourant.
ExxonMobil Guyana has partnered with the Guyana Government to have the Facility Simulator (FacTor) – one of less than 10 such facilities around the world – established here to provide “the latest and best technology and processing techniques” to the country and its people.
FacTor can accommodate up to 24 trainees for each batch, with four trainers across four disciplines – Mechanical, Instrumentation, Electrical, and Production. The facility is designed to recognise industrial standards used in the oil, gas, and energy industries worldwide.
It is expected to have a positive impact on the local oil and gas sector by providing trained technicians who will have the relevant competencies and skills to execute their roles offshore.
The FacTor was designed and engineered in Singapore. Previously, it served major oil and gas companies in South East Asia, before being shipped to Guyana in 2022. The equipment is expected to allow Guyanese students to undergo training using hands-on experimental technology as well as the mechanical and electrical instruments and process operations of the FPSOs operating offshore Guyana.