(News Room) Guyana’s Local Content Policy is being edited and will be completed this month, Director of the Department of Energy, Dr Mark Bynoe has revealed.

At a press conference on Monday, Dr Bynoe said the final report was submitted by Local Content Policy Consultant, Dr. Michael Warner and is currently being edited.

Even without the policy in place, the Energy Director said the department is working with operators to commence reporting on local content performance as per the matrices in the final draft of the policy.

“Working with the operators, we have commenced the process of ensuring that their reports are coming in the format identified in the local content policy so that that will allow for an easy transition, standardization and cohesion of those reports,” he noted.

The business community continues to call for the implementation of a Local Content Policy to provide more opportunities for Guyanese.

Quoting a report from Esso Exploration & Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) –a subsidiary of ExxonMobil – Dr Bynoe said 1,529 Guyanese are directly employed with the operator and its contractors with 76% of these being in the skilled and professional categories. The company’s employees are drawn from Regions 4, 3 and 6.

Additionally, the company engaged with over 435 Guyanese vendors.

The Director reported that EEPGL spent over US$82 million in Guyana in the third quarter of 2019 which he said represents an increase of more than 150% when compared to the same period in 2018.

He noted that the company is also working with the Council for Technical Vocational Education and Training (C-TVET) on revising the curriculum for electrical, welding and fabrication Level 1 program.

There is also the training of trainers to begin in July/August 2020 to roll out the revised curriculum.

“This is all of the capacity building we have been advocating so strongly for if Guyana is to take on a greater portion with regards to what happens within the industry,” Dr Bynoe said.

The Department is also working with CGX and Tullow to develop its local content plans.