ExxonMobil Guyana yesterday said that it and its contractors spend $19b here for the first half of 2021 making it a total of $96.4b since 2015.
In its 2021 Half Year report, which was recently submitted to the Ministry of Natural Resources, ExxonMobil sad that as of June 2021, 2,865 Guya-nese were supporting the company’s overall activities, representing 53% of the total workforce. It said that the Guyanese workforce grew by 38% at the end of June 2021 from 2,070 in June 2020 and includes 568 women.
It said that more than 82,000 hours of training were provided to Guyanese staff working on ExxonMobil Guyana activities, over 85% of which were in Professional, Technical and Craft, and Trade training areas
During the first half of 2021, the report said that ExxonMobil Guyana and its contractors spent nearly $19B with more than 750 Guyanese vendors of goods and services ranging from food to engineering. It says this has generated, either directly or indirectly, an economic impact of $23.1B.
Since 2015, it said that a total of $96.4 billion has been spent directly with Guyanese suppliers.
Outreach to local businesses continued through its Centre for Local Busi-ness Development with 141 electronic tender notifications being provided to over 3,000 Guyanese companies and mentoring seven Guyanese companies to be compliant in ISO9001.
Alistair Routledge, ExxonMobil Guyana Pre-sident said “We are proud to have been able to deliver these local content figures which are a reflection of tangible progress. Further growth is expected and ExxonMobil will continue to work with Guyanese businesses to build local content together.”
With three approved projects in Liza Phase 1, Liza Phase 2 and Payara, and a fourth project, Yellowtail up for approval, Routledge said timely approvals and processes are crucial to local content development.
“It is important to identify and invest in successive projects that allow for the expansion of efficient operations to provide sustainable employment opportunities, local business growth and broader economic development across Guyana,” Routledge stated.