Guyanese can now access oil and gas training locally-  Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation  located in Lusignan

(DPI) The development of Guyana’s human resources to effectively manage the country’s oil and gas sector is now a reality with the opening of Guyana’s first oil and gas training facility.

The new 3t EnerMech Guyana Training Centre of Excellence, will provide Guyanese with the opportunity to access accredited training in over 450 programmes without having to travel overseas.

The US$20 million Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation (OPITO) located in Lusignan, is a collaborative effort between 3t EnerMech, Orinduik Development Incorporated and Windsor Technologies.

Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips hailed the facility as a groundbreaking achievement for the country. He said it will play an integral role in building the country’s human capacity to effectively manage the oil and gas sector.

“The oil and gas sector has undoubtedly strengthened Guyana’s economy and the effective management of the fruit that this sector bears will help secure abundant and life-changing opportunities for all Guyanese,” the Prime Minister stated.

He stressed that the success of the oil and gas producing nation lies in the development of the people. Some 18 Guyanese selected through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) scholarship programme benefitted from training at the facility.

“We must ensure that we utilise the benefits of the oil and gas sector to build a bright future for this generation, the next generation of Guyanese and beyond,” the prime minister said.

Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat said the facility is another step towards the transformation of Guyana. He said while Guyana is blessed with an abundance of natural resources, the development of the country’s human resources is vital to the transformation of Guyana.

“That is what we need to develop to realise local content. We are never going to achieve true local content if we don’t develop our local human capita, our local capacity at the private sector level so that Guyanese can benefit,” Minister Bharrat stated.

The minister noted that government holds the responsibility for providing access to opportunities and creating the environment for Guyanese to take advantage of those in the oil and gas sector. The minister said it is one of the main reasons why the PPP/C Government pushed for Local Content Legislation.

“We as a government realise that we needed to move forward and create opportunities for people in the oil and gas sector and that was the basis on which the local content legislation was built.

“It was never designed to keep out investors or investment into our country. It was never created to keep out foreign investments coming into Guyana. It was designed to bring benefits to Guyanese and Guyanese businesses,” he said.

Orinduik’s Chairman Harrychand Tulsi, commended the government for creating the environment needed for such a facility to be established. Tulsi said he believes the facility gives Guyanese an opportunity to fully participate in Guyana’s transformation.

“Without the government efforts and the confidence of business people like myself in what the government is doing, this would not have been possible,” Tulsi stated.