Almost two years after local firm Source One Supply Oil and Gas Marine Supplies proposed building a US$120 million onshore oil and gas facility at Vreed-en-Hoop, no substantial feedback has been received from government, Chief Executive Officer Terry Singh says.
Speaking to Stabroek News, Singh said government has been “sleeping at the wheel” as no approval has been granted to build the multipurpose shore base, despite multiple Trinidad companies building capacity in Guyana. He said that “local companies are left on the back burner.”
Source One Supply Oil and Gas Marine Supplies is a subsidiary of Japarts.
Singh had told Stabroek New last year that the proposal to develop the facility at Vreed-en-Hoop was sent to government since August 2017 and additional documentation was subsequently dispatched but there had not been any substantial feedback.
He said since the additional documents were sent last year, he has not received any communication from any of the government agencies as it relates to the proposal. The documents were sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of the Presidency, the Guyana Office for Investment and the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, and detailed the company’s plan to construct a US$120 million facility.
“Our company is serious about local content in the oil and gas sector. We are not talking about indirect and drips and drops benefits for Guyanese, but a mega-project that will create in upwards of 300 jobs,” Singh said last year.
“Everything is set and ready and we are just awaiting the approvals from the government and it’s taking a lot of time, and while other people are setting up and getting prepared for the oil and gas industry we are left on the back burner,” he added, while stressing that such a facility is needed in the long term for the industry which will assist in garnering additional revenue for the country.
Previously, Singh had explained that the company received very good feedback from international companies and the local private sector but the government’s response has not been tangible. International companies have also expressed interest in forming a consortium to fund the construction of the project, and last year March, after the inaugural Guyana International Petroleum Exhibition and Summit, 18 “big” companies showed “a lot of interest.”
The shore base facility is expected to make provisions for port facilities, a fuel farm, a warehouse packaging facility, a mud plant facility, a cement plant, a helipad facility, drill pipes repair and storage facility, waste management service, a fabrication and welding workshop, and supply vessel and crane services, among other things.
Singh had explained that supplies will be garnered from companies around the country and will be stored and distributed at the centre. He had said that the aim of the project is to develop a venture that will be able to bring value to the operators in the emerging oil and gas sector, along with Guyanese themselves.
“Essentially, we intend on effectively converting 2.4 million square feet into a showcase for what can be done through inclusion, local and transnational partnership. Our research has demonstrated that Source One will have an immediate impact on the local economy,” he had said, while adding that the venture would create more than 400 jobs directly and about 1,000 indirectly, along with “adding long term value to the nation’s GDP.”
Singh said that if a facility of the sort isn’t built there, then the citizens of the country are less likely to benefit from the emerging oil and gas sector. If given the go ahead and blessings from the government, the project can be completed within 26 months, he had said.
ExxonMobil is expected to draw first oil from wells offshore by 2020.
