WASA Alliance Inc launched to ensure Guyanese benefit from oil value chain

The West Africa South America (WASA) Alliance Inc, which addresses training and capacity building for the oil industry to ensure that Guyanese benefit in the value chain, was launched on Thursday at the ongoing International Energy Conference at the Marriott Hotel.
During the launch, WASA Alliance gave an insight into how it intended to support the local oil industry.
The company will be looking at areas such as compliance, institutional strengthening, procurement, warehousing, and servicing. Countries from West Africa that are part of the Alliance include Nigeria, Ghana, and Congo.
The company said it sought to abide by the Local Content framework while utilising the expertise of these countries to enhance the sector here. Since countries in West Africa are ahead of Guyana in terms of oil exploration and production, these lessons and best practices would be shared.
Vice Chairman Yomi Balogun explained that their work was premised on ensuring that locals were certified to participate in the value chain.
“When we talk about the people being able to participate in the value chain of oil and gas, the most important thing is education. The education in oil and gas is very specific in terms of requirements and certifications. We’re here to do that. We have done it in Nigeria, working through global institutions to satisfy in terms of certification to be able to work across the value chain.
“We are here to ensure that Guyanese are able to participate in the value chain of oil and gas and at the end of the day, we can bring value home. It starts at home. We must be able to get people to work whether they are educated or not,” the Vice Chairman positioned.
He added that persons from the communities with no formal educational background could be equipped to provide services, after just a few weeks of training.
“We’re here to look after the people. The definition of education goes beyond paper qualification. In addition to that, we’re also working with the institutions like GTI [Government Technical Institute]. These are institutions mentioned in the local content law, and we’re going to bring them up to speed as well, with respect to the faculty and infrastructure.”
One of the partners, Acentia Energy Limited was represented by General Manager Emmanuel Boateng, who reiterated that every avenue to support the industry was covered.
“We’ve got you covered. When it comes to our products, we cover every side of it through manpower, services, and spare parts for our operation. That is what we bring on board and we’re here to help Guyanese to develop the local content and get the best out of what is planted down,” Boateng explained.
The first schedule of the Local Content Act sets out the minimum threshold and level for local content levels in relation to the procurement of goods and services. There are 40 areas, with local participation of up to 100 per cent.
Additionally, a local company is expected to have Guyanese in at least 75 per cent of executive and senior management positions and in at least 90 per cent of non-managerial and other positions.