– GCAA hands over Prosperity FPSO helideck licence
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill
The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) on Tuesday officially handed over the helideck licence to Exxon’s Prosperity floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.
In addition, Adrian Bassier was issued with his instrument of delegation which makes him the first certified helideck inspector in Guyana. In fact, Director General of the GCAA, Lt Col (ret’d) Edgbert Field explained that back in 2016, Guyana had to request the assistance of Ghana to inspect the helideck of the first FPSO.
“In 2016, when the first helideck for the first FPSO had to be certified, Guyana was deficient in a helideck inspector. I called the Director General of Ghana requesting his assistance and the MoU which exist between our parties that give him the authority and allowed him to assist us by lending us his helideck inspector who had to travel to Singapore in order to conduct that helideck inspection.”
GCAA Director General, Lt Col (ret’d) Edgbert Field hands over the helideck inspector’s certificate to Adrian Bassier
It was during the same time, Bassier travelled to Singapore to understudy him and after that first session, he had two other sessions to complete before becoming a fully certified helideck inspector. “Today, we can happily say that Guyana has its first helideck inspector.”
However, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill stated as Guyana sees itself on the verge of becoming a significant oil-producing nation, the need for trained and qualified aviation professionals evolves, one of which includes a helideck inspector.
“Investment in human resource development as Guyana develops this new sector is important. Who would have thought that in the aviation section in Guyana, we would have been talking about helideck inspections? But here it is that a whole new section has developed. We are now putting in the third FPSO and based upon the programme that we have gotten from the developers, we can very well see within the next few years, at least two others.”
He noted, however, while Bassier is the first, it will be the first in the set of experts that Guyana will develop to ensure that it has the in-house capacity. He nevertheless hopes that Guyana’s search and rescue capacity is boosted. “We have to ensure that the monitoring mechanisms are in place.”
Meanwhile, Bassier related that this achievement is not only personal but also a cause for pride for Guyana overall, and that he recognises the responsibility he holds.
“As the oil and gas industry expands, it is expected that you have more vessels with helidecks coming and we have to ensure that those helidecks are operated in a safe manner,” Bassier said. “We need to do our best to ensure that safety is always paramount.”
