With a view of providing employment for hundreds and fulfilling its commitment to local content, Nabi/KCL Oilfield Construction Services Guyana Joint Venture has carried out a job fair targeting hundreds of potential workers.
The job fair was held aback of Ogle, East Coast Demerara (ECD), where Nabi/KCL is constructing new headquarters for ExxonMobil local subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL).
Some of the persons who turned out for the job fair
In fact, the fair was held right outside the construction site. In an interview with Project Director Steve Milner, he explained to this publication that they already have a sizeable Guyanese workforce working on site.
“We’ve already commenced construction. We’re dealing with the foundation at the moment. We’re gonna be building the superstructure. We’ve already got 250 people working on the project,” he said.
However, Milner explained that the joint venturers were looking to take on hundreds of staff, though this will be over a period of time. He explained that there will be other career opportunities opening up as they progress with the project. Additionally, Milner noted that there will be job openings with the other sub-contractors working on the project.
From left: Project Manager Richard Price and Project Director Steve Milner
“The idea of today is fair. It’s to ask people to register their interest and we’re looking for a full spectrum of skills, from the labouring skills to management skills. So we can develop the workforce, that we need to be increasing the workforce. And we want to ensure that we’re maximising local content, maximising opportunities for the Guyanese people.”
“We know there are more skills out there. The majority of the workers onsite and management are Guyanese nationals. We’re about 80 per cent at the moment, of Guyanese nationals on site. So we’re going to maintain that, increase that, to as maximum as we can,” Milner further explained.
According to Milner, they have had a very good response to the job fair since it opened. He explained that they will be using the responses from the job fair to build a database of skills to recruit persons from as the positions become available.
“We know that there are people living in Guyana who will meet the skills we need on the project. And we’ll also provide mentoring, training… we’ll be looking for, from the basic skilled people, we’ve got opportunities for engineering type people, supervision type people in the construction field. And administration as well, as well as safety.”
“Safety is our number one priority on the project. So we had a lot of people out earlier, people interesting in safety. So it’s very encouraging, the number of people interested. We’re going to be building up the workforce over the next few months,” Milner said.
Nabi/KCL was awarded the contract to construct EEPGL’s headquarters back in April 2019. The project entails constructing two buildings, an outdoor pavilion, paving, landscaping, fill and storm drainage, site utilities and electrical works. Richard Price, the Project Manager, explained to this publication that the headquarters are expected to be completed by next year.
It was only days ago that the Government also operationalised two Local Content Registers, where Guyanese can register their available skills and services for the oil and gas sector through the Local Content Secretariat of the Natural Resources Ministry. These two registers, as proposed in the Bill, will deal specifically with the procurement of goods, and secondly, the provision of skills and employment.
According to the Local Content Act passed last year, oil and gas companies operating in Guyana, as well their contractors and sub-contractors must procure from Guyanese companies by the end of 2022, 90 per cent of office space rental and accommodation services; 90 per cent janitorial services, laundry and catering services; 95 per cent pest control services; 100 per cent local insurance services; 75 per cent local supply of food; and 90 per cent local accounting services. These are just some of the 40 different services outlined in the first schedule. (G3)
