Academy launched to train locals for oil & gas industry

TotalTec Oilfield Services, a Guyanese-owned company,Thursday officially launched the International Petroleum and Maritime Academy at Houston, East Bank of Demerara.

With overseas trainers, the Academy is hoping to offer as much as 120 courses by the end of its first year in operation to prepare Guyanese to join the industry.

TotalTec Oilfield Services is Chaired by Lars Mangal, while the Senior Vice President of Operations is Michael Henzell and Senior Vice President of Marketing is Brian Chia- all of whom worked several years with the Texas-based Schlumberger oilfield services.

The Academy already has an office at Houston, provided by its partner Schlumberger, but has acquired space to expand its office.

Mr. Mangal, following the turning of the sod for its new building, noted that training will be facilitated by Scottish company First Competence Limited Aberdeen, which has already signed a multi-billion Guyana dollar contract in collaboration with three Guyanese instructors.

“The First Competence team has already been in Guyana and are going to be our preferred training partner, not the exclusive partner, because we’ll have a lot of other companies participating in the training and the preliminary of training programmes to Guyanese.

“But First Competence is going to be providing us with instructors; we have given them a five-year contract,” Mangal.

He noted that the company is looking to train persons who were recently laid off from the sugar industry and also liaise with local technical institutes to identify persons who may be suitable for employment at the Guyana Shore Base Inc.

This was welcomed by Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, who was also asked to be a patron of the Academy.

“…we continue to look for local capacity building and this is a step in the right direction.”

“We ask you to partner with the University of Guyana and our technical institutes as we delink in a way and go through the agonizing pain of right-sizing the industry. There are going to be a lot of able-bodied men and women who can make a contribution to the new industry,” Trotman stated.

The Academy is hoping to begin training as early as March and will be adding more courses as the demand increases.