Fugro provides offshore training for Guyanese workers

Dutch offshore services provider has entered into a new alliance with Ground Structures Engineering Consultants Ltd in Guyana to boost its marine site characterisation services for the oil and gas industry in the Republic of Guyana.
According to Fugro, the alliance will facilitate training for Guyanese citizens and support local economic development.

“By working with agencies in the Republic of Guyana, Fugro fulfils its commitment to support local economic development and, through relationships with local companies such as Ground Structures, facilitates training and maximises job opportunities for Guyanese citizens. As part of this new working relationship, Fugro will provide onsite training at its state-of-the-art accredited laboratory in Houston, Texas, USA to cross-train soil technicians to meet industry standards,” Fugro said.
What is more, Fugro also said it would provide essential offshore experience to Ground Structures’ certified soil technicians who will support a geotechnical campaign recently awarded to Fugro by Exxon’s subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production, Guyana Limited.
The marine site characterisation project is scheduled to begin this month and the Ground Structures technicians will work alongside Fugro personnel onboard its deep-water geotechnical vessel, Fugro Explorer, Fugro said.
The Republic of Guyana has been placed on the offshore energy map after recent oil discoveries made by ExxonMobil.
The Department of the Environment (DoE), in January 2017, hosted a training workshop, in collaboration with Fugro aimed at ensuring that every sector in the country is adequately prepared to treat with Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector within the framework of the green economy.
The one-day workshop for the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), which is the Agency charged with overseeing the effective management, conservation and protection of the environment, and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) was hosted at the Marriott Hotel Guyana and is among several initiatives planned by the Department to prepare stakeholders to deal with Guyana’s imminent oil and gas future and its emerging sectors and needs.
Fugro’s Country Manager in Guyana, Brian Hottman, said its role is to teach the participants about the “life of field” in the sector, that is, how it works and moves from the geophysical phase all the way to the decommissioning phase. “It’s… a basic course to open up information to them…  What we’re doing is we’re helping them understand the way it’s worked in other countries and showing them different technologies to make sure that when something starts that it is left the same way when it’s finished,” he said.
With regard to Guyana’s preparedness to embark on sustainable development within the oil and gas sector, Hottman said that while infrastructure such as offshore to onshore pipelines and oil refineries would have to be built, “there’s a huge growth that will take place in Guyana”.