After providing high quality fabrication services to Guyana over the last 18 years, Industrial Fabrications Inc. (InFab) is now the first local company to provide fabrication services to the third Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO) that will operate in the Stabroek Block oilfields operated by ExxonMobil and its partners.
The steel strike ceremony was held on Tuesday at InFab’s Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara location. The ceremony marked a huge milestone in the growth of local content development of the oil and gas industry in Guyana.
InFab will be providing cable tray support fabrication services, and lighting and control station fixtures fabrication works for the third FPSO vessel – The Prosperity. This vessel is currently being constructed to produce oil offshore Guyana in the Payara Field. The first, the Liza Destiny FPSO, arrived in Guyana on August 29, 2019 while the second FPSO – the Liza Unity – is also under construction.
“Today’s milestone is the accumulation of hard work we put in throughout those years and we are proud to have the opportunity to demonstrate that we are fully capable of providing services to the international entities such as SBM Offshore and ExxonMobil Guyana,” InFab’s Managing Director Jerry Max Goviea said during brief remarks.
Goviea further said this is an amazing opportunity that a local company can showcase to international partners what they can offer. He is confident that InFab will rise to the occasion and set trends and be able to acquire and deliver more projects as part of the local content drive.
“This collaboration is truly what local content is about,” Goviea stated.
Goviea further assured that the project will be delivered with international safety and quality standards.
President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, commended the local company for putting in the hard work to win the contract to provide services to an industry where quality and safety is most important.
In 2019, ExxonMobil conducted a study to determine what fabrication work can be done in Guyana, since majority of the facilities used offshore are fabricated overseas in very competitive locations such as Singapore.
“….but we could see that it was possible to bring that work here to Guyana so then we partnered with SBM Offshore to bring that work and to go through the process of tendering and to be able to identify companies to do that work.
“It is an achievement to now see fabrication for the next FPSO, the Payara FPSO, coming into Guyana to be undertaken here in Guyana by Guyanese workers is a very important milestone,” Routledge explained.
Meanwhile, General Manager for SMB Offshore Guyana, Francesco Prazzo described this transformational period in Guyana as the golden age. As such Prazzo said they are here to build bridges for the years to come and contribute to integrating the oil and gas industry into the Guyanese economy.
This, he explained, can be achieved with the collaboration and support from high quality and reliable local talent, goods and services.
Additionally, Prazzo said safety is top priority and this is why SMB Offshore has set high expectations for suppliers.
“We set high expectations for suppliers to become part of our vendors list. All suppliers must be successful in a high risk base qualification process that involves multiple disciplines; the purpose of this process is to know whom we are doing business with and ensure that they safely deliver the quality products and services that we need,” Prazzo said.
But all of this could not have been possible with the support of the government and the Centre for Local Business Development. Both Routlegde and Prazzo lauded notable contribution by the Centre, which plays a critical role in providing services to the industry by local suppliers.
ExxonMobil and SBM Offshore said they remain committed to supporting well equipped and firm local suppliers who can contributed to the development of Guyana.
