A joint venture among Guyanese companies, Mines Services Ltd, a member of the Farfan & Mendes group of companies, TOTALTEC; and Trinidad and Tobago energy services company, Process Components Limited (ProCom), has led to the development of a new energy services company, Jaguar Oilfield Services Guyana Inc. (Jaguar).
The new company provides products and services specific to oil and gas, for example, slinging and rigging. The company provides slings made from wire rope and polyester synthetics, gauges for pressure and temperature measurement, inspection services on lift equipment, as well as non-destructive testing.
Jaguar provides its products and services from a shop and warehouse facility in Georgetown, near the offshore supply base serving Exxon and its offshore operations.
The company benefits from the expertise of its joint venture partners. Mines Services and TOTALTEC are both longstanding members of the Guyanese private sector and bring with them a wealth of industrial knowledge. The operational partner, ProCom, despite being a minority shareholder, will be a vital part of the joint venture.
Mark Laughlin, CEO of ProCom, in an interview with EnergyNow, said that Jaguar Oilfield Services is now in the business development phase and so shifts focus to gathering new business in Guyana. ProCom is likely to be important in this stage as the company is already registered with the major service providers and will be able to assist and provide guidance in getting registered or pre-qualified in the supply chain of the companies already working in the market.
According to Laughlin, the process of finalising the joint venture and getting the company registered took approximately one year. However, he sees the role of ProCom as driving the transfer of knowledge to the new company and its partners. Laughlin said that the company is Guyaneseowned, but having a minority share that is owned by Trinidad and Tobago allows the company to lean on our local expertise. The joint venture has been lauded by the Guyanese government for this approach.
According to OilNow, Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin, expressed his support for the business community, saying he is confident in the private sector for pushing the industry forward.
At the launch of the company, Minister Gaskin said, ‘I see this move as a way of building local capacity … I do have tremendous confidence in the Guyanese private sector … to find a way to take advantage of the oil and gas sector’.
While many local businesses are complaining, the Minister said there are many others like Farfan & Mendes that are making an effort in ‘getting a piece of the action’ ahead of oil production.
In terms of building local capacity, Laughlin indicated that several Jaguar employees from Guyana visited Trinidad and Tobago to participate in formal training for testing and certification for rigging; basic offshore safety induction and emergency training (BOSIET), non-destructive evaluation (NDE); and United Kingdom Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA medicals). They also stayed for almost two weeks for hands-on experience and in-house training in spelter socket termination and splicing of mooring rope, Laughlin added. This was facilitated as there is currently no similar training in Guyana. In this way, Jaguar now has the ability to access training, certification and hands-on experience to be sent back into the field. He added that staff from Trinidad also go to Guyana to work with them during the transition phase to ensure that they get the necessary experience along with the certification.
Knowledge transfer is critical for the development of a new industry, especially one with many international players. One of the ways that Guyanese firms can retain value of their energy sector and gain knowledge is through joint ventures. Jaguar Oilfield Services is one of the first new joint venture companies that has been established in the budding industry.