Baker Hughes, one of the world’s leading energy technology companies, opened its multi-million dollar Multimodal Supercenter at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara on Monday; it will provide oilfield services and equipment for Guyana’s budding petroleum sector.
The Supercenter sits on some eight acres of land next to the Demerara River and includes a workshop, warehouse, laydown storage yard, maintenance facilities and equipment.
And Baker Hughes, with 41 locals already in its employ, also provides drilling services, drill bits, drilling and completion fluids to several drilling rigs.
The facility was built together with Baker Hughes’ existing completion warehouse and liquid mud and completion fluids plant, providing full support to customers in Guyana and Suriname.
It is expected to employ more than 100 employees within five years, and the majority are expected to be Guyanese.
Baker Hughes’ Turbomachinery & Process Solutions (TPS) and Upstream Chemicals businesses also provide technology and solutions for the Liza Unity floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO) and other projects in the region.
At the launch, Executive Vice President for Oilfield Services Maria Claudia Borras shared the company’s excitement to introduce technologies in order to bring “efficiency and simplification” to Guyana’s oil sector.
“Baker Hughes is well-known in the region for service and technical excellence, and our new Guyana Supercentre will bolster our efforts to expand even further into the evolving market. We are proud to be here, and we look forward to this exciting next phase in our work,” Borras stated.
The Supercenter will be managed by Baker Hughes Country Manager, Darryl Eisler, who explained that construction started at site a little over a year ago with local contractor JOP SP.
Eisler explained that Baker Hughes is looking to expand services as the company plans to grow with Guyana throughout the “lifecycle” of its oil and gas resources.
“This is the beginning of the oil and gas sector for Guyana so you have exploration, you have some development, then you are gonna come back and do wellbore intervention, you are gonna have to reproduce these wells, and then you are gonna have to abandon some of these wells.
“So Baker Hughes has that whole lifecycle of process in it and over time, we want to transition some equipment out and transition some other pieces in as we hope to be able to expand the market and grow out further and to be able to grow more in Guyana,” the Country Manager explained.
A major factor in the choice of location, Eisler added, was the proximity to the Demerara River, the country’s main waterway which holds vast potential for development.
“The fact that we have got river access here that would allow us to make that transition back and forth from the ocean a little bit safer, cleaner and efficient, is great,” he stated.
In the same vein, the Baker Hughes Country Manager asked for more developed infrastructure in the area, including roads and this President Dr Irfaan Ali assured will come.
The Head of State, who delivered the feature address at the launch, said that the opening of the Supercentre in that area will bring major development and as such, the infrastructure of the area will need to be upgraded to suit.
“The landscape for this entire stretch would change drastically, not dramatically, in the immediate future from both government and private sector development so these communities will also have to be expanded because, with these growth poles, there must be a shift to accommodate it,” President Ali contended.
He reaffirmed that the government‘s infrastructure programme outlined in the 2022 budget will facilitate the needed infrastructure development to create “a win-win” situation for the company and the country.
The launch was also attended by other government officials including Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh; Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal; Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat and members of the diplomatic community, including American Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch and British High Commissioner to Guyana, Jane Miller.
The US companies wants this, wants that….but they not paying taxes like guyana businesses. They ducking under laws and irresponsible breaks given to the vampire US companies. Guyana will end up getting less money than the claims from the US companies. How they expect Guyanase people to fix and build roads from them?