On March 31, eight Guyanese engineers completed SBM Offshore Guyana’s Graduate Engineers’ Programme.
The programme provided international training for the Guyanese, who graduated from the University of Guyana, to support the Prosperity Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, the third vessel SBM Offshore is delivering to Guyana.
To commemorate the occasion, a graduation ceremony was held at the Guyana Marriott Hotel for the engineers, who formed the first cohort of the programme, a release from SBM said. SBM Offshore N.V. is a Dutch-based global group of companies selling systems and services to the oil and gas industry.
Seven of the graduates – Malik Lewis, Andy Sattan, Tanisha Selby, Paula Ceres, Raymond Luckhoo, Kishaun Lall and Daniel Troyer – received training in the Netherlands and then Singapore for six months each, where they gained hands-on training on the Prosperity. The eighth graduate, Maryam Nasir, was trained in Monaco and the Netherlands, where she participated in the creation of a Digital Twin for the Prosperity FPSO – a digital replica of the vessel, designed to enable information management. Following the completion of the training, the graduates were awarded official placements within the company.
The SBM release said that they now serve in the following capacities: Lewis, Vendor Callout Coordinator; Sattan, Reliability and Optimisation Engineer; Selby, Instrument and Controls Engineer; Ceres, Facility Engineer; Luckhoo, Planning Engineer; Lall, Planning Engineer; Troyer, Facility Engineer, and Nasir, Data Scientist.
During the graduation ceremony, General Manager of SBM Offshore Guyana, Martin Cheong said that the activity is in keeping with the company’s Local Content Master Plan and indicated that this is just one of the capacity development programmes SBM Offshore Guyana offers.
In her remarks, Human Resource Manager, Onecia Johnson noted the resilience of the graduates, who commenced training during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said, “They are committed and resilient. From weathering unfamiliar climates and being away from their families as they underwent training, to absorbing the teachings of the industry experts that they worked alongside, this impressive team of graduates displayed zest for the training opportunities they were presented with”, Johnson stated.
Prosperity FPSO Project Director, Boudewijn Ledderhof commended the graduates for their proactive approach to training, and the vigour with which they undertook their daily tasks, saying, “You have shown that with the right attitude and with the right mindset you can grow rapidly into roles that SBM Offshore needs, and the industry needs. You are all textbook ambassadors for all the cohorts to follow, and you should be very proud of that”, he said.
A new batch of graduate engineers has been recruited as the second cohort of the programme, in alignment with SBM Offshore Guyana’s ongoing initiatives to build local capacity, and expand its Guyana workforce.
