Research, preparation key for Guyanese businesses to capitalise on O&G opportunities – Tucker

Local business Executive, Timothy Tucker, has said that there are a number of opportunities for Guyanese companies to tap into especially in the burgeoning oil and gas sector but this requires commitment and lots of research. Tucker, a prominent Guyanese businessman and former President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), was at the time speaking on the Starting Point podcast. Sharing his experience in business, Tucker says that there are greater opportunities for Guyanese today in every sector including the oil and gas industry. However, he noted that given the high standards of the petroleum sector, he is of the view that local businesses need to do more in order to position themselves to capitalise on these opportunities. “I think that the market gives greater opportunity to the persons right now. There are so many opportunities… I believe that most Guyanese have the opportunity to either work in the [oil and gas] industry or an associated industry, or you have the ability at this point to be an entrepreneur. There’s nothing stopping you from being an entrepreneur.”

“You’ve got to be able to diversify, look for your niche product or service, and really try to fill the gaps in the market. It takes some amount of time and research. Previously in Guyana, we never bothered with market research studies and, you know, in the private sector…a lot of companies don’t do a lot of market research. And here lies the opportunity for the businesses to do market research, understand what products and services that there are, how they can expand what they’re doing… and so, you know, there’s opportunities all around you. You just have to look for them,” the businessman posited. With many local businesses looking to get into the oil and gas industry, Tucker contended that they must first understand the sector, what their needs are and where the gaps are for them to enter. He noted that there are lots of tools and initiatives that are available that can assist Guyanese companies to prepare themselves for these opportunities. These include the Centre for Local Business Development (CLBD), the Local Content Secretariat (LCS) and even tools within the private sector bodies such as at the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and the GCCI. He added too that persons wanting to enter the industry should also attend the annual Oil and Gas Conference that is held in Georgetown to better understand and scope out opportunities.

Expanded local content law
Tucker, who was one of the private sector representatives that were on the fore of the push for a local content legislation, said that many Guyanese businesses have benefitted tremendously from the oil and gas industry since the law was passed in December 2021. The Local Content Act identifies 40 different service areas that oil and gas companies and their subcontractors operating in the country must procure from Guyanese and Guyanese-owned businesses.
“There’s a massive amount of wins that happened for Guyanese when that legislation was passed…undoubtedly, it single-handedly changed the outlook, and the outcome for Guyanese in the industry. There are many Guyanese that are benefiting from that local content, and not just in the 40 areas. There are areas outside of the 40 that Guyanese have now gone and partnered [with international companies to service the sector],” Tucker stated. In the same breath, however, he says time has come now for the legislation to be updated and expanded to allow more Guyanese companies to benefit from the oil and gas opportunities. This revision, he added, is even more important to clamp down on some of the loopholes that were being taken advantage of by some Guyanese – something which he acknowledged that the authorities have been working to address. According to Tucker, “there is some work to be done. There’s some work to be done, and it needs to be done. It needs to start now. We need to expand the [40] areas. We need to understand what are the areas outside the 40 that locals can participate in, so that we can capture those areas. And I know that that’s part of the expansion, but that information also needs to be transcended to the population and to the business community, so that we can know where the gaps are, where we can fill it, where we can increase capacity, and of course, new areas of opportunities.” Just last month, Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat had said that the Government is looking to widen opportunities for Guyanese within the oil and gas industry by clamping down on loopholes in the Local Content Act that have been taken advantage of in the past. These include ‘fronting’ or ‘rent-a-citizen’ whereby foreign companies employ Guyanese and/or Guyanese businesses in order to bypass the Act. The Local Content legislations mandates penalties, such as fines ranging from $5 million to $50 million, for oil and gas companies and their sub-contractors who fail to meet the minimum targets of the legislation, as well as for those who are in breach of the Act. According to Bharrat, this ‘rent-a-citizen’ practice is now almost eliminated as well as other arrangements that were being used to bypass the local content framework including the use of shell companies.