Showcasing Guyana’s oil and gas services potential at last week’s Offshore Technology Conference in the US, TriStar Inc which plans to build a US multimillion dollar shore base in Region three, has vowed to bring oil and gas services here from other countries.
The company last week announced that it plans to invest in Guyana’s youth so as to build capacity in the engineering sector.
“My focus is to maximize local content by substituting away from the foreign services in Mexico and other overseas territories, while creating employment opportunities and technology transfer in Guyana,” TriStar Inc’s Principal Krishna Persaud told the Sunday Stabroek.
“At present, most of the fabrication for subsea infrastructure is not happening in Guyana and that must change over time. Making that happen will require specialized facilities that meet international standards and a well-trained workforce. We will be providing engineering scholarships for Guyanese students and will also be empowering the local skilled workforce with opportunities to become certified welders and fabricators…,” he added.
At the OTC in Houston, Texas, TriStar Inc which is developing a 70-acre West Demerara Shorebase, met with potential clients and investors with the view of promoting Guyana as a destination for subsea fabrication services. “There is so much opportunity for all Guyanese people to grow and develop our competency to become specialized and globally competitive,” Persaud said.
In all of the discussions at the conference, Persaud said he underscored Guyana’s local content initiative and emphasized that his company’s goal is to ensure that not only there is knowledge transfer to locals but the country sees tangible benefits.
On the eve of leaving for the OTC, TriStar Inc announced that it had received all the regulatory approvals to move ahead with a planned state- of-the-art shorebase facility, which it says will be operated to international safety, security and environmental standards.
“TriStar has received all the regulatory approvals required for the construction of the WDSB [West Demerara Shore Base],” a company representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had told Sun-day Stabroek when asked for an update on the project.
Persaud has said that the company has assembled “a blue chip team” of highly qualified individuals and companies with vast experience in building and managing ports for the oil and gas industry.
World-class
TriStar’s presence at the OTC, the representative has posited, “is indicative of its commitment to provide a world-class shore base facility to support the expansion of the Guyanese oil industry.”
“When completed, the project will be a dedicated oil and gas shorebase with six berths. It will be operated to international standards, including ISO 45001, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, as well as ISPS port security standards. The shore base will be operated to the highest international Health, Safety, Security and Environmental (HSSE) standards. As a dedicated oil and gas facility, the WDSB will allow for optimal control of logistics and management of HSSE,” the company representative added.
The WDSB is bounded on the east by the Demerara River, on the south by an outfall channel, on the west by residential and commercial properties as well as the West Demerara Public Road and on the north by the Cheddi Sawmill. With construction of the facility set to start later this year and revetment works in process, it is anticipated that the project will be completed by the third quarter of 2023.
“The project site offers the advantage of being contiguous, which allows for better control of logistics, allowing tenants to conduct all operations without ever having to leave its perimeter or cross public roads which comes with safety risks. In addition, the West Bank Versailles area is not congested with traffic, houses and businesses,” the representative stated.
In addition, the TriStar official said that the WDSB “will also mean more competition in the shorebase services landscape which will lead to lower prices for companies engaged in offshore exploration and development activities, this ultimately redounds to the benefit of the Guyanese economy.”
TriStar hopes that its project will be complementary to other shorebases here and believes that there is more than enough works for all local industry players. “Being located up the Demerara River means the facility it is not subject to coastal wave action. Its location is also just opposite (an) existing development: Guyana Shore Base Inc. (GYSBI), which together with the WDSB, could create a sustainable economic cluster.”
Following the removal of a large swathe of mangroves from its Versailles site this year, TriStar Inc faced serious criticism of insensitivity to the environment .
Government had defended the removal of the mangroves, underscoring that the mangrove removal on the western side of the Demerara River was necessary in the scheme of plans for developing that area like the eastern side, so as to cater not only for the oil and gas sector but its holistic development agenda.
The company in late June announced that it had begun stockpiling sheet piles for revetment works at the site where mangroves were removed and those works have started.
