Leading companies in Guyana\u2019s oil and gas industry said they are stepping up efforts to integrate small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly women-owned businesses, into their supply chains as part of a long-term strategy to strengthen the nation\u2019s economic foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Company representatives indicated this goal at a panel discussion titled \u2018Industry Perspectives\u2019 at the Local Content Summit in April. Local Content Supervisor at ExxonMobil Guyana, Natina Singh, disclosed that the company has designed investments to build local capacity with sustainability in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve put a lot of focus on the Centre for Local Business Development (CLBD) and the programs that we run through there because they are focused on women-owned and led businesses, small and medium-sized businesses,\u201d Singh said.\u201cWe are interested in building capabilities and capacity for sustainability. They\u2019ll outlive us, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She pointed to the AccelerateHER and ElevateAll, CLBD programs, which have already supported around 200 women. A recent follow-up showed a combined increase of USD16 million in revenue among participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose are the kinds of things that we want to ensure are integrated into the oil and gas supply chain but also being prepared for any other industry that may come to the shores of Guyana,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baker Hughes is taking a similarly forward-looking approach. Caribbean Area Director, John Rhodes, said the company is not waiting for the government to release updated sector targets in the Local Content Act before expanding its supplier base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re already, in anticipation of that, trying to grow our local suppliers and anticipate which sectors, so we can be fully compliant\u2026We\u2019re not going to wait. Why wait?…It makes business sense to use local suppliers well in advance of that,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rhodes said Baker Hughes spends about USD35 million annually in Guyana, and 10% of that goes to women-owned businesses. He added that the company gives \u201cextra weighting to female-owned businesses\u201d during the Request for Information (RFI) process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SLB aims to onboard 5-10% more SMEs and women-owned firms. Supply Chain Manager Elchin Rzayev said the company engages with new suppliers on a project-specific basis and holds face-to-face meetings with those responding to RFIs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe see the market is growing\u2026but [some local suppliers] feel that the barriers to enter and work with the big companies is too high for them and too costly,\u201d Rzayev said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Insurance cost is a significant barrier across the sector. Rzayev said the \u201ccost of insurance in the standard industry is high.\u201d Therefore, SLB is making accommodations to help locally certified vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halliburton\u2019s Country Lead, Vahman Jurai, said his company is working to address this concern. \u201cSome of our contract models require…elevated insurances and all the terms and conditions that bring additional costs,\u201d Jurai explained. \u201cThat is an area we\u2019re working on with the local suppliers\u2026to see how we can make some concessions to give them that ability to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SBM Offshore has taken steps to embed local content criteria in every stage of the procurement process. General Manager, Martin Cheong, said bid evaluations now reflect the guidelines issued by the Local Content Secretariat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve significantly enhanced\u2026our commercial bid evaluation, to take into account the guidelines\u2026 and applying that to give the advantage to the local businesses, SMEs, as well as women-owned,\u201dCheong said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also discussed how SBM is nurturing entrepreneurial mindsets from a young age. \u201cSome of the young girls in our football programs are interested in opening their own businesses,\u201d he said. \u201cProviding them with that skillset from an early age [helps them] have the entrepreneurial mindset from the onset.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A recurring issue raised by suppliers is the timeliness of payments. Rhodes acknowledged that payment delays can be frustrating but said many of these result from vendors not fully understanding Baker Hughes\u2019 invoicing protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe do have local suppliers who just submit an invoice, no backups, no nothing\u2026 The system is automated. It\u2019s just rejected,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you do submit our invoices with backups, you\u2019ll get paid on time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jurai said Halliburton, like Baker Hughes, has observed this and responded with targeted training. \u201cWe\u2019ve spent a lot of time training [vendors] on how to maneuver the process and what are the touchpoints or who are the contacts, should they have a delay in those payments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the growing pains, the benefits are becoming evident. Some small businesses that started as Halliburton vendors have grown beyond the company\u2019s needs. \u201cThey consider us now too small for them, so they have grown a lot also,\u201d Jurai noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the oil and gas sector expanding rapidly, the Local Content Secretariat is looking for ways to boost opportunities and access for locals, especially women-owned businesses and SMEs. The government said it will continue to find ways to facilitate a reduction in payment times and add new categories of work to the Local Content Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leading companies in Guyana\u2019s oil and gas industry said they are stepping up efforts to integrate small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly women-owned businesses, into their supply chains as part of a long-term strategy to strengthen the nation\u2019s economic foundation. Company representatives indicated this goal at a panel discussion titled \u2018Industry Perspectives\u2019 at the Local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":20,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-local-content"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1370,"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions\/1370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyguyana.gy\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}