Even as concerns are raised about Trinidad & Tobago companies accessing oil & gas service jobs that locals are capable of doing or not getting the opportunity to tap into, yet another company says it will be providing transportation services here.
The Couva, Trinidad & Tobago-based Triple D’s Inc said that it has teamed up with TOTALTEC Oilfield Services Guyana Inc to provide services to the oil & gas sector here.
The company, which has a booth at the Guyana International Petroleum Exhibition Summit (GIPEX), lists its office at lot 447 Plantation, Providence, Guyana.
This newspaper approached two representatives of the company on Wednesday but was told that their spokesperson will speak on behalf of the company.
Yesterday, the Stabroek News made a follow-up visit and spoke to a young woman who identified herself as the company spokesperson. She declin-ed to give her name and said that the company was in partnership with TOTALTEC. She added that she would speak further when manager of TOTALTEC, Lars Mangal was present, which she anticipated to be later in the afternoon.
When this newspaper contacted Mangal, he said that Triple D’s was not a part of TOTALTEC and explained that he was in a meeting but that the newspaper could contact him today.
Yesterday, a letter writer to this newspaper lamented the opportunities being offered to T&T companies in areas that Guyanese could well take up.
“Presently in the local Oil and Gas environment there are precious few jobs available to Guyanese companies. Guyanese can only hope to find opportunities in sectors such as security, local transportation, food-catering, etc. But even these little offerings are being swept away from local players and being given to Trinidad companies who, since they cannot compete with the oil majors, must hunt among us, smaller tribes, and squash us,” the letter writer stated.
The writer continued, “All of this is happening in full view and with complete indifference by the local authorities and the various private sector organisations. But the main culprits in this egregious act are the oil companies themselves who are willfully promoting and endorsing these foreign companies to the complete detriment of Guyana, its people and its local economy.”
Listing examples, the letter writer pointed to an unnamed Trinidad trucking company that has recently entered the market, to work for one of the biggest oil-field services companies in the world. “Now, there are several local trucking companies that can readily perform these jobs. Yet this company has been favoured, and has become so emboldened it has now gone after a local transportation company that has been performing taxi services for Exxon and others since 2012. A Trinidad logistics company has secured the logistics work for several oil companies. This company is proud to state that its entire Guyana operations is staffed by local staff. Which only begs the larger question, why then can’t Guyanese logistics companies, of which there are dozens, perform these tasks and thereby ensure that 100% of the profits are retained in country and used to invest or spend in the local economy.”
Further, the writer added: “Another Trinidad company has won the waste management tender for Exxon and has beaten out well-qualified local companies on several bid processes. In none of these instances have the foreign companies seen it fit to team up with local entities to enhance their local content ratio. In some of these instances, the persons in the oil companies directly complicit in the recruitment of these Trinidadian companies are Trinidadian themselves.”
With the local private sector lamenting that enough is not being done in the area of local content, already, a number of Trinidadian companies have established a business footing here but head of the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago (ECTT), Dax Driver, had downplayed fears that there would not be opportunities left for locals.
He had said that his chamber has seen interests from larger companies that are going to be selling to major operators and other Trinidadian companies and they are looking to partner or act as intermediaries for Guyanese service companies.
“We are a real mix of Trinidadian companies. There is the freedom of capital to move around the Caribbean so companies are going to be here and investing. Some things that used to be invested directly from Trinidad to Guyana’s offshore industry, and that has been going on for a while …over time you will see that shifting and coming directly from here,” he said.
The ECTT President emphasised that there is much Guyana could learn from its sister CARICOM country with over a 100 years of experience in the oil & gas sector therefore many skills could be transferred and experiences shared.
