-Berbicians to be trained for oil and gas under Clem Sankat
photos by Bebi Oosman
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday announced in Region Six that thousands of sugar workers severed under the former APNU+AFC administration will each receive a $250,000 grant at least by the end of January, 2022, regardless of their employment status.
He also announced that a new facility will be developed in Berbice early next year to provide temporary employment to those in need while training will be offered to Berbicians so as to clear the way for them to secure jobs in the oil and gas industry.
Jagdeo told the workers in Skeldon, Upper Corentyne and Rose Hall, East Canje Berbice, that his party saw firsthand the devastation which the closure of the Rose Hall and Skeldon estates triggered. He said that it caused sugar workers to be unable to sustain their lives and even feed their families forcing them to turn to handouts.
He said at that time while the opposition PPP/C offered as much help as they could they had also promised to return with additional help, and as such, they have stuck to their promise.
“Each sugar worker who was severed would also get another $250,000 on their severance”, he stated, noting, that the total cost to provide this grant to the estimated 7,000 severed sugar workers would be around $1.7B – $1.8B.
His announcement was met with applause.
He said that the former APNU+AFC government cannot argue that they were unable to keep the sugar industry alive as at that time it would have cost $5B per year in assistance to keep the thousands of workers employed while they were spending “billions of dollars more on other things, food in government, renting more buildings, buying more vehicles, billions of dollars spent on things that did not really help people.”
He added that the closure of the Wales, Skeldon, Rose Hall and Enmore estates also trickled down and affected drainage and irrigation which were being taken care of by the industry and triggered the loss of income to the National Insurance Scheme.
The PPP/C had vowed that if it was returned to office in 2020 it would reopen three of the estates. That process has begun.
In terms of the sugar industry, Jagdeo pointed out that while re-employment has started, the recent flood caused the industry to suffer about $4B in losses. However, he said, discussions have been ongoing with a number of persons who want to join with the government to reopen the Skeldon Estate but one of the issues is that most of the potential investors do not want to grow cane but rather sell power to the government from the Cogeneration Plant at the location.
“And they want a price for the power which is extraordinarily high and a long-term contract… If we buy power at that level it will be about twice as much as we are generating from gas, twice as expensive and therefore we would not be able to cut people’s electricity prices, so the proposals have surrounded that.”
Spin off
As such, they are now zeroing in on the possibility of using the Skeldon Estate to spin off to other types of businesses “some linked to sugar and some linked to other things so that you can still get maybe about two to three thousand people employed back.” He then noted, that while not many persons want to take part because of the scale of the project the government will have to work to find a way to get it done.
He also touched on the Rose Hall Estate, noting, that while they would have experienced some difficulties thus far they are still working to ensure the estate reopens as planned.
Jagdeo said that since gaining office they would have put in about $14B into the sugar industry and they are spending more than the revenue obtained. However, he said that he has no apology to offer for working to reopen the estates since when an assessment is made from the social impact side “it is important and necessary spending.”
Jagdeo said that during his recent visit to Houston, Texas in the US and several meetings locally he learnt that there is a need for more workers in the oil and gas sector, a sector which he said he wants to ensure benefits the people of Berbice.
“They are looking for hundreds of workers but cannot find enough workers, the problem is how do we get people from Berbice and these are good paying jobs, how do we get them to work in the oil and gas industry?” he queried.
As such, he said that the government has made a decision to expand GuySuCo’s Port Mourant Training School to offer the necessary courses to certify workers who can then be employed in the oil and gas sector. According to him, Professor Clement Sankat, a Berbician, who was at the University of the West Indies will head the training school.
Jagdeo said that he has also asked Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, who was present for yesterday’s meetings and others within the region, to create a list with 400 names so as to get the training started.
Additionally, he said, “We’ve had discussions with MACORP and with others where they can move their training facilities to Berbice, to Skeldon, to Canje and other areas, especially in the sugar belt where people don’t have jobs.”
According to him, there is need for 600–700 welders for the oil and gas industry since “we are going to bring in a pipeline” which they hope will arrive by 2024 and would be able to generate 250 megawatts of power which is twice as much as GPL supplies to the entire country presently. He said, they are working to drop the price per kilowatt per hour by half as well as the price of cooking gas.
Jagdeo told the gathering that “not everyone has to go back to the sugar industry because the oil and gas industry, the pay there will be significantly higher”.
He then pleaded with Berbicians especially the young persons to take full advantage of the opportunities by way of the training which will be provided. “In a few months you can become (a) certified welder so once you get your certificate you can work in the industry.”
He also said, that he has spoken to MACORP to train Berbicians to become heavy- duty machinery operators as such persons are needed in the mining and oil and gas sectors.
He also urged Berbicians to be open-minded in terms of possibly travelling out of the region to work “and do things differently”, while he noted that eventually development will come to Berbice.
Jagdeo assured the gathering at the various meetings held in Region Six yesterday that job opportunities will come in the future but in the short term in every region “we are going to put together a facility to temporarily employ people and maybe give them a few days (a) week of work for those who are unemployed.”
He said that they are hoping that the facility which will be set up in Region Six will employ about 1,000 persons for about three to four days per week “so that they can maintain their families while they are training or they are looking for another job.”
