Guysons K+B (GKB) on Saturday announced the commencement of the training needs assessment for the transition of workers from Enmore’s sugar packaging facility to its oil field service centre and manufacturing facility.
In a release, GKB said that over 42 workers from the sugar packaging plant comprising 12 women and 30 men have registered for the transition. This, the release says, is in keeping with the company’s agreement with the government that it would train and hire those individuals to work at the new US$37.5 million industrial development site.
The Enmore project will be set up to manufacture and repair oilfield tubular goods such as completion accessories, drill pipe and deliver turn-key manufacturing services. These are needed by international oil companies to develop Guyana’s oilfield. GKB will also offer premium threading of tubular goods, accessory services, and turn-key manufacturing solutions in the country. The investment will see the creation of a world-class oilfield service and manufacturing facility which will create 500 jobs over the next five years.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GKB, Faizal Khan, along with the company’s human resources, community support, and administrative teams, recently visited Enmore and met with the workers to register their details and understand the roles they played previously, while using the opportunity to present the company’s plans.
“We have agreed to take on the entire Enmore facility team, which guaranteed jobs in the transition from sugar to oilfield. Given that this is a different industry, the current staff will require training. They will be trained by GKB with trainers from America coming to Guyana regularly. The GKB training is going to last a minimum of 90 days and includes health and safety as well as Oilfield Machine Shop Training. We were happy to meet and interact with the people and we look forward to working with them,” the CEO was quoted as saying.
Khan emphasised that the training is necessary to ensure that the workers can “effectively and efficiently” transition into the new sector which has very strict health, safety and security standards, and requires more technical skills than they may have been used to in the sugar industry.
“The current staff would have to become used to strict international health and safety standards, which would include proper use of oilfield equipment and safety gear as well as handling of materials, and there would be regular drug and alcohol screenings. The training will take some time, it will take money, but we are committed to making it work and have already started investing into their oilfield training program.”
