…urges citizens to take advantage of demand for technical personnel
Director of the Vreed-en-Hoop Shorebase Inc (VEHSI), Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer, is urging Guyanese individuals and businesses to seek out partnerships in order to expand and tap into the vast opportunities available in the country, especially in the bourgeoning oil and gas sector.
“Don’t be afraid to look for partnerships,” the businessman said during an appearance on the latest episode of the Starting Point podcast
The US$300 million Vreed-en-Hoop shore base, a product of collaboration between local and foreign investors, is a 44-acre artificial island on the Demerara River. It serves as a critical port facility to support ExxonMobil Guyana’s offshore operations, providing space for SURF (Subsea Umbilicals, Riser, and Flowlines) projects.
VESHI was developed by NRG Holdings Inc, a 100 per cent Guyanese-owned consortium, and Jan De Nul, an international maritime infrastructure company based in Luxemburg. NRG comprises Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer and Eddie Boyer of National Hardware Guyana Limited; and Andron Alphonso of ZRN Investments Inc., who together holds a majority stake of 85 per cent in VEHSI.
Recalling the journey to develop VEHSI, Deygoo-Boyer said, “We had to be a little bit crazy, and we had to have a self-belief, despite people thinking that we’re crazy or saying that the idea wouldn’t work, we still had that self-belief to push forward.”
That self-belief coupled with research and an understanding of the market needs at the time led the two Guyanese businesses to teaming up but they still needed the expertise and resources, which Jan De Nul brought to the table.
“Partnerships can be as simple as maybe you have the idea and you need capital, or partnerships can be as sophisticated as maybe you have an idea and you need technology. And for us, we needed partnerships who brought both capital and technology, and that’s our partner, Jan De Nul. Because Jan De Nul had done this sort of construction in other parts of the world, but it was our idea and our market information that helped kind of take them to the particular opportunity that we ended up leveraging,” Deygoo-Boyer emphasized.
Unlike other full-service port facilities, the VEHSI partners built the real estate, and then leased it out to operators in the oil and gas sector. Back in 2022, VEHSI signed a 20-year agreement with ExxonMobil Guyana for the Vreed-en-Hoop facility to support the United States oil giant’s shore base operations.
“We developed such a large swath of land behind the berth, it allowed Exxon and their contractors to store quite a bit of materials in country. Now, they use this to store [and assemble] their SURF materials… So, VESHI provides that space for Exxon and their contractors, to do a lot of that work before they move these pieces of equipment out to the oil field,” he explained.
Many opportunities
According to Deygoo-Boyer, there are many opportunities – both big and small – that Guyanese can take advantage of and participate in the country’s oil and gas sector. In fact, he noted that these opportunities available are not just business-related.
The businessman highlighted the growing demand for technical personnel in not only the oil and gas sector but other industries that similarly undergoing unprecedent expansion.
“There’s never been a larger demand for persons in technical or STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields than there is today,” he stated.
Deygoo-Boyer pointed that nearly all the technical personnel are being usurped by the oil and gas industry leaving other sectors wanting – opportunities he says Guyanese should equip themselves to take advantage of.
“You have a country that’s growing, and simultaneously, its civil infrastructure is rapidly expanding as well. So, that means we’re calling on civil engineers, electrical engineers. So, the oil and gas industry, civil infrastructure and construction, and whether you have manufacturing, mining anything else that is in between are all tugging at the same workforce,” he noted.
The businessman further outlined that this where investments into industrial institutions like the Port Mourant training centre are critical.
Launched just last month, the US$120 million Guyana Technical Training College Inc. (GTTCI) Campus in Port Mourant, Region Six, is a world-class, state-of-the-art facility that would help build a highly skilled Guyanese workforce to secure high-income careers in technical and other advanced industries.
Among the courses offered at the facility are Production Technician Training, Instrumentation, Electrical, and Mechanical programmes – all of which further branches into its respective specialised fields.
“What this investment and this facility represented is a big leap frog to really create…the Guyanese technical workforce for the oil and gas industry of the future. So, I think it’s hugely important… So, we want to encourage it hugely because when you look at the salaries that these guys earn, and gals, they’re taking home quite a bit that will transform their lives as compared to where if you were an engineer before this industry happened. And so, it allows them to have a quality of life, to buy a home, to raise a family, to do a lot of things that you see in other countries,” Deygoo-Boyer posited.
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