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- Advertisement - By Kisean Joseph & Tahna Weston / A tense situation that unfolded some time before midday yesterday forced authorities to put the Clare Hall...

- Advertisement - By Kisean Joseph & Tahna Weston / A tense situation that unfolded some time before midday yesterday forced authorities to put the Clare Hall...

- Advertisement - By Tahna Weston The United Progressive Party (UPP) has been hit by another resignation, the second one for this week. Sean Bird tendered his...

- Advertisement - By Tahna Weston The United Progressive Party (UPP) has been hit by another resignation, the second one for this week. Sean Bird tendered his...

Huge wage disparity allowing foreign companies to cheat Local content provisions – Chris Ram Sep 28, 2024 News Kaieteur News – The Local Content Act of 2021 was passed to increase the benefits of Guyanese from the burgeoning petroleum sector, but with foreigners being paid salaries significantly greater than those being paid to locals, Attorney-at-Law, Christopher Ram pointed out that companies may be cheating the provisions. Attorney-at-Law, Christopher Ram Ram was a panelist on the Oil and Gas Governance Network’s (OGGN’s) ‘Oil Talk’ programme, aired on Kaieteur Radio (99.1/ 99.5 FM) on Thursday evening. The show, hosted by OGGN member, Charles Sugrim, also featured Local Content Specialist from Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) Anthony Paul. In explaining the purpose of Local Content, Ram explained, “It’s really (about) how much of the expenditure out of oil revenue or how much of the oil revenue accrues to Guyanese, human and material resources. In other words, do we really share in the pie?” The Lawyer pointed out that Guyana’s legislation made provision for local content since 1986. Be that as it may, Ram said governments, past and present, seem ignorant of this. He argued that the politicians, in addition to a bad contract also allowed foreigners to penetrate the local content provisions. Ram said, “If we really had local content would we have had the strain on foreign exchange? Petroleum is all an exchange earner and yet our country, we struggle so I think in a practical way, we have a challenge. We’ve never implemented local content.” The Chartered Accountant observed that Guyana has not been paying attention to statistics regarding local content. He however pointed out that the wages earned by Guyanese should be compared to wages earned by foreigners. T&T Local Content Strategist, Anthony Paul Ram suggested that the disparity in wages could only be addressed by changing the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). He said, “We can only stop it if we renegotiate the contract in terms of local content (and) we deal not only with head count and quantity but we deal with (the) sum of money.” He continued, “So you don’t just say well oh you must employ 90% locals but if the 90% only get 10% of the revenue, it means the 10% expats get 90% of the revenue. That’s what we have got to fix.” Meanwhile, Paul pointed to the importance of an ‘Equal Opportunity’ legislation. He explained this would ensure that if two people are creating the same value, they would be compensated equally. The Local Content Strategist noted, “The expatriates get not only higher salaries, but they get housing, they get schooling for their children, they get paid vacations, all of which we pay for from cost recovery so we pay them more and we fret when they want to pay our own people more and there’s this thing they put around that if they pay the locals more, it will distort the local economy.” He said that Trinidad and Tobago is known for its long history of oil production but the fact is that only 3% of the labour force is citizens of the country. ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL), the operator of the Stabroek Block in its 2023 Annual Report stated that over 6,200 Guyanese are employed in the industry to support its operations. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources Local Content Secretariat in August revealed that local companies earned a total of US$314 million from the oil and gas sector within the first six months of 2024. Martin Pertab, Director of the Secretariat noted, “As of June 30, 2024 expenditure among the related sector is somewhere around US$314 million of 54% of the 2024 projected estimate, when compared to mid-year of 2023, we are seeing growth in some areas such as engineering machine services by 238%, we have seen growth in accommodation services by 39%, we have seen growth in equipment rental by 48.5% and catering by 18.8%.” Related Similar Articles

Trinidadian judge approves seizure of Venezuela’s gas proceeds to clear debt with US oil company Sep 28, 2024 News Kaieteur News – United States oil company, ConocoPhillips on Friday got a Trinidad court to approve the seizing of payments from the Caribbean country to Venezuela’s state oil company for a proposed offshore gas project between the two neighbors – Reuters reported. ConocoPhillips has for years been seeking to recover money from Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) for expropriating its assets. PDVSA had paid Conoco about US$700 million through a settlement agreement but ceased payments in late 2019. Conoco has since attempted to enforce arbitration rulings against Venezuela and PDVSA, including a US$1.33 billion claim against PDVSA in Trinidad’s high court. It was reported that Judge Frank Seepersad said his decision to appoint a receiver was made as there is a risk that PDVSA will move assets from Trinidad’s jurisdiction to avoid paying ConocoPhillips, and pointed to PDVSA’s previous relocation of its European headquarters to Moscow. Conoco’s lawyers told the court they had identified the specific PDVSA assets they were targeting. Judge Seepersad said the order was made against PDVSA and its companies and not the state of Venezuela which was not the subject of ConocoPhillips’ legal move. ConocoPhillips declined to comment. PDVSA could not immediately be reached for comment and Trinidad’s state-owned National Gas Company, which is a member of the Trinidad-Venezuela gas project, was not immediately available for comment. According to the Reuters report, the court-approved receiver will control any compensation payable to PDVSA for relinquishing a right to the joint Dragon Gas Field project, and any infrastructure it owns, court documents showed. PDVSA has seven days after being served with the Trinidad court’s latest decision to try and have it set aside. ConocoPhillips secured a similar judgment in Guyana. According to reports, following Venezuela’s nationalisation of the company’s assets, ConocoPhillips secured an arbitral award against the Venezuelan government. ConocoPhillips sought to enforce it in various countries, including Guyana, Trinidad, and Jamaica, where PDVSA holds assets. Last month, the Government of Guyana (GoG) moved to set aside a ruling by High Court Judge Gino Persaud, which permitted the enforcement of the arbitral award in ConocoPhillips’ favour to claim funds owed to Venezuela and PDVSA. The Guyana Government’s escrow account, holding about US$32.01 million under the PetroCaribe agreement for Venezuela, was targeted by ConocoPhillips. However, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, S.C., has appealed Justice Persaud’s ruling, requesting the Full Court to overturn the decision entirely. Nandlall is also seeking costs for both the Full Court and the lower court proceedings. Related Similar Articles

Generator fire partially destroys DDL’s power plant Sep 28, 2024 News Firefighters battle a fire at DDL’s power plant complex at Diamond (GFS) Kaieteur News – The Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) power plant located at Diamond, East Bank Demerara (EBD) was partially destroyed by fire on Friday. The aftermath of the fire at the building The fire reportedly started between 16:30h and 16:40h. At the scene, firefighters battled the fire which they eventually got under control at the Diamond, EBD complex. No injuries were reported and the company’s staff was seen in the vicinity of the complex looking on. The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) in a press release late Friday afternoon said that the firefighters were able to contain the fire. “It was reported that a generator was on fire, and upon arrival, firefighters discovered that chemical and fuel bonds, along with gas cylinders, were at risk,” GFS stated in a terse statement. Additionally, DDL in a statement said that none of its “other facilities or installations are under threat.” Related Similar Articles