In a bid to create jobs for laid off sugar workers, the government has agreed to grant some 55 acres of lands located at Enmore on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) to a 52 percent Guyanese owned joint venture called Guysons K+B Industries Inc. (GKB).
The 55-acre plot includes the US$12.5M Enmore Packaging Plant that was commissioned in 2011 by this same administration and it will be used by the joint venture to build a manufacturing facility to support Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector.
The announcement of this recent move by the government was made on Wednesday at the Guyana Energy Conference and Expo 2022, held at the Marriott Hotel, Kingston, Georgetown.
GKB is a joint venture made up of Guysons Engineering, a Guyanese company, and K+B Industries Inc, its American partner.
Guysons Engineering was founded in 1992 and Guysons Oil and Gas, which was formed in 2017 with the help of ExxonMobil, the American oil giant operating in Guyana, became an ISO 9001-2015 certified oil and gas support company in 2018. It was awarded ExxonMobil contracts in 2019 and had moved to team up, in 2020, with K+B Industries Inc., a company that has decades of experience working in the oil and gas sector, to form a joint venture.
GKB has since set up a manufacturing shop in Ruimveldt, Georgetown and is now seeking to expand its operations by establishing another manufacturing facility at Enmore.
The new manufacturing facility at Enmore will be set up to manufacture and repair tubular goods such as drill pipes, drill covers, etc., needed by oil companies to develop oil fields. GKB will also offer premium threading of the tubular goods, accessory services and Turnkey manufacturing solutions in the country.
As it relates to the arrangement between the government and GKB for the lands and the US$12.5M packaging plant owned by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), GKB’s Chief Executive Office, Fazil Khan was willing to share some details with this newspaper.
Despite negotiations are still ongoing between the two parties, Khan said that an agreement has been made for his company to purchase 25 acres of the land, lease another 25 and also lease the packaging plant on a long-term lease.
Consultant Advisor on the project, Rosh Khan, who spoke with this publication also pointed out that GKB will not be granted all of the lands at one time. He explained that GKB will begin with 25 acres and the packaging plant with spans and area of at least five acres. In order to lease the remaining 25, it will first have to complete all of the commitments it made with Guyana.
GKB’s Khan confirmed this and noted too that considerations were also taken to safeguard against a scenario where Exxon can pull out.
“You don’t want to invest or buy and then Exxon pulls out of Guyana because it can happen and you can lose,” Khan said.
Asked if any agreement has been with the government on the purchase and lease price, Khan responded that these are still in the process of being negotiated.
However, the CEO assured that it will be a fair one for both parties and revealed that his company has committed to an overall commitment of US$60M towards the development of the project. Out of this amount, Khan said, more than US$7M has already been expended.
The CEO further highlighted that the lands it is acquiring are “sugar lands”, which will have to be developed in order to become a standard facility.
“We will have to do some land filling, land clearing, probably install some streetlights and so on before we can start up the facility,” explained Khan.
Among the commitments the company has made, is to create 500 jobs over a five-year period.
Guyana’s President, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who along with the Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, yesterday boasted that the 500 jobs to be created is in keeping with Guyana’s local content policy.
Dr. Singh had made it clear too that the granting of the lands to GKB was not by accident since it took place via discussions at the level of the president to invest in Enmore.
The reason behind the decision, he added, is to create jobs for the people of Enmore, especially those who were laid off after the Enmore Sugar Estate was closed.
President Ali also iterated this point during his feature address and added that the investment is not just for the people of Enmore but for the entire East Coast corridor.
The President added too that it is also his government’s plan to pursue more investments from companies involved in Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector in other communities where sugar workers are laid off.
The previous coalition administration had closed four major sugar estates – Skeldon, Wales, Enmore and Rose Hall.
It should be noted that the decision to close these estates was taken because the sugar industry was not making enough money to maintain them and keep them in operation.
Ali’s People’s Progressive Party/Civic party, while in opposition, had vowed to revive the sugar industry to make it profitable again.
However, since taking office, billions of Guyana dollars have been pumped into GuySuCo but the industry is still to be revived to its former glory.
Kaieteur News had reported in October 2021 that the government had started to plead with oil companies to hire workers laid off by GuySuCo. The revelation had been made by Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, at a career fair hosted by the Guyana Shore Base Inc. (GYSBI).
The Minister had said in a DPI interview, “We are encouraging companies in the oil industry to seek out areas that would allow persons laid off by GuySuCo to be employed.”
He had also stated that most of the laid off sugar workers are already skilled workers, such as mechanics and welders, and with a little training, they can be easily transitioned into the oil and gas sector.
At Wednesday’s announcement, GKB’s American partner, via one of its representatives, Nick Bencnel, said that it has already started training its local workers and will send some of its local team players for a more in-depth training at K+B Industries’ world class facility.
Source: Kaieteur News