Kathy Smith, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, asked the government to watch foreign and regional oil contractors more closely. She spoke on 24 September at the Chamber’s third energy luncheon, themed “Beyond the Barrel”, at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown. The Chamber wants “more monitoring and observation from the government’s standpoint”, she said, OilNOW reported.
Her test was what the contractors are here to do. Companies coming to Guyana, Smith argued, must understand that they are here to build Guyanese businesses and the wider economy, not only their own operations.
Part of what she asked for is already a statutory duty. Section 11(5) of the Local Content Act 2021 reads: “The Secretariat shall cause to be published an approved extract of a Local Content Plan on the website of the Ministry responsible for petroleum or on any other media of wide circulation and that publication shall not include any confidential or proprietary information.”
What has the Chamber actually asked for?
Two things. The first is information. Smith questioned why regional and international companies often appear better briefed on developments in the petroleum sector than the Guyanese contractors chasing the same work. Local firms, she said, need clarity on coming contracts, technical requirements, certification, insurance and financial controls. She objected to Guyanese companies being left out of conversations about opportunities, and urged them to form partnerships and consortiums to bid for larger assignments.
The second is oversight. Smith named no contractor and alleged no wrongdoing. Her point was that monitoring should make sure the benefits of expanding operations reach local firms. She acknowledged the Chamber’s working relationships with ExxonMobil, the Centre for Local Business Development and the government, while saying too little information reaches domestic firms.
What does the Act require the state to publish?
| Provision | What it requires |
|---|---|
| Section 11(5) | The Secretariat shall publish an approved extract of a Local Content Plan on the petroleum ministry’s website or other media of wide circulation, excluding confidential or proprietary information |
| Section 6(9) | The Secretariat shall cause the Local Content Registers to be published on the ministry’s website or other media of wide circulation |
| Section 18(1) and (3) | The Secretariat reports to the Minister on each contractor’s, sub-contractor’s and licensee’s performance, the objectives not yet attained and the reasons given; the Minister shall cause a report to be laid before the National Assembly |
| Section 19 | A Contractor, Sub-Contractor or Licensee shall allow the Secretariat unrestricted access to facilities, records, reports, documents, data and information for monitoring, assessing, evaluating, investigating, auditing and verifying compliance |
Source: Local Content Act 2021, No. 18 of 2021, as gazetted on 31 December 2021.
The petroleum ministry’s document library is not thin. It carries the Canje and Block S4 petroleum agreements, the Liza Phase 1 production licence and its Phase 2 addendum, the Whiptail and Hammerhead licences, both Stabroek cost recovery audit reports, the model production sharing agreements for deepwater and shallow water, and the Liza and Payara Gold crude assays. Under local content it carries submission guidelines and report templates. It does not carry an extract of any approved plan.
The Local Content Register is at localcontent.gov.gy and opens on a login. This newspaper set out the position in August, in Guyana Approved Local Content Plans for More Than Forty Companies, reporting that no list of approved companies exists on any government site. Section 11(5) settles what that absence means: the publication is a duty, not a courtesy.
The Act allows publication in other media of wide circulation as an alternative to the ministry website, so an extract placed in a newspaper would satisfy it. None has been found.
What has the government said it is doing?
The Ministry of Finance’s 2026 Mid-Year Report sets out the position at the half year.
| Measure | What the report says |
|---|---|
| Spending in prioritised sectors | Preliminary estimates indicate approximately US$466.2 million was spent on procuring goods and services in the sectors prioritised for greater Guyanese participation in the first half of 2026 |
| Registrations | Approximately 500 Guyanese businesses registered through the Secretariat in the first half |
| First schedule | Stakeholder engagements on revising the first schedule continued, with an additional 20 areas identified for consideration, potentially for inclusion under goods and services |
| Online portal | Launched in the first half. New applications from wholly Guyanese companies and partnerships are processed within 15 working days and renewals within 10; other firms, 21 and 15 |
Source: Mid-Year Report 2026, Ministry of Finance, paragraphs 3.66, 3.74 and 3.75.
Two points there are narrower than they are often reported. The US$466.2 million is described in the report as a preliminary estimate. The 20 additional areas are identified for consideration and potential inclusion, which is a stage before a decision.
The portal that was launched speeds up certification of Guyanese suppliers. It is the registration side of the system, not the compliance-monitoring side.
What can the Secretariat do when a contractor falls short?
Enter the premises and read the files, then prosecute. Section 19 gives unrestricted access to facilities, records, reports, documents, data and information. The penalties on summary conviction run from one million Guyana dollars for a late document, through five and ten million for false or misleading information, to fifty million for carrying out petroleum operations without meeting the minimum local content requirement. Failing to satisfy the content requirement of an approved plan carries ten million.
What the Act does not do is make an operator answerable for its sub-contractors. Contractor, Sub-Contractor and Licensee each carry their own duties and their own liability throughout. There is no joint and several liability anywhere in the Act.
How do other producers handle the same problem?
Ghana wrote the monitoring duty in 2013 and has been measured against it since. Regulation 44 of the Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, L.I. 2204, reads: “The Commission shall monitor and investigate the activities of each contractor, subcontractor, licensee and other allied entity to ensure the achievement of the purpose of these Regulations within the framework of the national policy on local content.”
A United Nations University WIDER working paper on Ghanaian local content law and practice found the results mixed, and named three causes: the low capacity of local firms, discrimination against them by international oil companies through vertical integration, and the weak regulatory capacity of the Petroleum Commission itself. A monitoring duty on paper is not monitoring.
Nigeria publishes its refusals. The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board processed 1,603 expatriate quota applications, approved 1,417 and rejected 186 for non-compliance, allAfrica reported in March 2026, with the approved quota carrying 13,833 employment commitments. That is a number a local contractor can hold a regulator to.
Mozambique built the mechanism Guyana’s Act lacks. Law No. 9/2026 of 3 June, its first binding local content law, requires covered entities to ensure through contractual mechanisms that their sub-contractors comply, failing which they are jointly and severally liable, LEX Africa reported. That liability operates in accordance with regulations still to be issued, so it is a lever built and not yet pulled. The same law creates a Local Content Authority with its own legal personality, administrative and financial autonomy and sanctioning power, where Guyana’s Secretariat sits inside the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Mozambique is the closest analogue for the reason Smith raised. Its law answers a complaint that gas megaprojects had not reached local firms and workers. Brazil’s Petrobras signed a two-year memorandum with Mozambique’s state hydrocarbons company this week, reported in Brazil’s Oil Company and Mozambique’s Signed a Deal in Rio.
Where does gas come into it?
Smith said engagement matters most as Guyana prepares to develop its gas resources, and named power generation, manufacturing, industrial development and downstream activity as areas where local firms could take part. She asked for talks on widening the existing local content categories and for more information on the Berbice port. She asked Deodat Indar, Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation and the luncheon’s feature speaker, to relay her concerns to his Cabinet colleagues.
The categories are where the Chamber’s members meet the Act. It reserves forty categories for companies that are 51 per cent Guyanese owned, running from 90 per cent of catering down to 5 per cent of engineering, set out in Guyana’s Oil Law Reserves 90 Per Cent of the Catering for Local Firms. Two gaps in that schedule have been reported here already: the software that runs a US$12.7 billion field, in ExxonMobil Bought Software to Run a US$12.7 Billion Field, and the offshore vessels, in Guyana Reserves a Fifth of Offshore Aviation Support for Local Firms.
Next door, Suriname has required local preference since 1990 without percentages or categories, covered in Suriname Has Required Local Preference Since 1990. In mining, Guyana has promised five companies that if the law changes the state pays, in Guyana Has Promised Five Mining Companies That If the Law Changes, the State Pays.
The Chamber itself has been busy on the regional front, signing two Trinidad agreements in nine weeks, reported in The Georgetown Chamber Signed Two Trinidad Agreements in Nine Weeks.
What would show the position has changed?
Three things, each of them checkable without anyone’s cooperation. An extract of an approved local content plan appearing on the ministry’s website under section 11(5). The Local Content Registers appearing there under section 6(9). And the Secretariat’s impact assessment report being laid before the National Assembly under section 18(3), where any member can read what each contractor committed to and what it did not attain.
What the title card shows
- Section 11(5): the provision of the Local Content Act 2021 requiring the Secretariat to publish an approved extract of every Local Content Plan on the petroleum ministry’s website or in other media of wide circulation.
- Forty-plus plans approved, none published: the ministry’s document library carries petroleum agreements, production licences, cost recovery audits, model production sharing agreements and crude assays, and no plan extract.
- US$466.2 million: preliminary estimate of spending on goods and services in prioritised sectors in the first half of 2026, with about 500 Guyanese businesses registered. Mid-Year Report 2026, Ministry of Finance.
- G$50 million: the maximum fine on summary conviction, for carrying out petroleum operations without meeting the minimum local content requirement.
- No joint and several liability: the Act gives Contractor, Sub-Contractor and Licensee separate duties and separate liability. Mozambique’s new law makes operators answerable for their sub-contractors, subject to regulations still to be issued.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the Chamber’s president ask for?
Closer government monitoring of foreign and regional oil contractors, and better information for Guyanese firms on coming contracts, technical requirements, certification, insurance and financial controls. She named no contractor and alleged no wrongdoing.
Does the law already require the plans to be published?
Yes, in part. Section 11(5) of the Local Content Act 2021 requires the Secretariat to publish an approved extract of a Local Content Plan on the petroleum ministry’s website or in other media of wide circulation, excluding confidential or proprietary information. Section 6(9) requires the Local Content Registers to be published the same way.
What powers does the Secretariat have?
Section 19 requires contractors, sub-contractors and licensees to allow it unrestricted access to their facilities, records, reports, documents, data and information for monitoring, investigating, auditing and verifying compliance. Penalties on summary conviction run up to fifty million Guyana dollars.
Is an operator responsible for its sub-contractors?
Not under Guyana’s Act, which gives each of Contractor, Sub-Contractor and Licensee its own duties and its own liability. Mozambique’s Law No. 9/2026 takes the other approach, making covered entities jointly and severally liable where their sub-contractors do not comply, subject to regulations still to be issued.
How much local content spending has been recorded this year?
Approximately US$466.2 million in the first half of 2026 on goods and services in prioritised sectors, described in the Ministry of Finance’s Mid-Year Report as a preliminary estimate, with about 500 Guyanese businesses registering through the Secretariat in the same period.
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