US multi-million Baker Hughes opens facility to service local oil sector

…supercentre to be eventually managed by Guyanese

Baker Hughes, a US-based energy technology company, has opened a multimillion-dollar local supercentre facility for oilfield services and equipment at Land of Canaan on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD), with the eventual aim of increasing the workforce until the facility is managed by 100 per cent Guyanese.

At the opening ceremony on Monday, there were a number of speakers who expounded on the impact the multimillion-dollar facility will have. One of them was Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat, who also noted that the Government looks forward to partnering with the US company.
“It is indeed a fitting time too, as we are preparing for our first major oil and gas conference in Guyana, where we will showcase what we have to offer as a country and as a people. So, I wish to congratulate and extend best wishes to the executives and staff of Baker Hughes, both local and expats who are here and to ask that we work together, hand in hand, with the Government to regrow the sector.”

“And, of course, at a time when our Government has been focusing a lot on local development and local content, we look forward to working with you and building capacity, not just in human resources but in terms of provision of goods and service that are competitive in quality and prices,” Bharrat further said.

In an interview with this publication afterward, Baker Hughes Country Manager Darryl Eisler explained that over time it is expected Guyanese will be running the facility. In fact, the supercentre is expected to employ more than 100 persons within five years with the majority being Guyanese.
“At the end of the day, I hope that at one time Guyanese are running this establishment. This isn’t going to be run by anyone that is not Guyanese. A year ago, I had six Guyanese. Today I have 41. Both working offshore and onshore, in the office and in the workshop, male and female.”
“So, over that transition and as our sector grows, we begin to develop those people and employ those people and they begin to grow with us. We have several service engineers who have gone from a level one to a level two, in two years’ time we’ve been able to develop them to that level,” Eisler said.
The supercentre, which sits on eight acres of land, is expected to provide drilling services, drill bits, and other services to the drilling rigs operating offshore Guyana. This particular supercentre is a partnership between Baker Hughes and JOP Property Holdings.
Permission was given to the company back in September 2020 for the construction of a wharf and oilfield ‘supercentre’. The company operates in 120+ countries worldwide with over 54,000 employees.
The new multimodal supercentre has been built together with Baker Hughes’ existing completion warehouse and liquid mud and completion fluids plant, providing full support to customers in Guyana and Suriname.
The supercentre represents a multimillion-dollar investment from Baker Hughes over 15 years and includes a workshop, warehouse, and laydown storage yard including maintenance facilities and equipment. (G3)