(Kaieteur News) – Oil and gas companies in the first six months of 2026 spent approximately US$466.2M to procure goods and services in the sectors prioritised for greater Guyanese participation.
During the same period last year, it was reported that US$352 million was spent on the procurement of goods and services in these sectors.
The mid-year report published by the Ministry of Finance noted that in addition to the increased spending, another 500 Guyanese businesses registered with the local content secretariat in the first half of the year.
Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh
The document also explained that during the period, an online portal was launched to reduce the processing times for approval of new applications and renewals for local content certification. “The processing time for new applications from wholly-owned Guyanese companies and business partnerships is now within 15 working days and renewals are within 10 working days. For other firms, new applications are completed within 21 working days, and renewals are processed within 15 working days,” the government stated.
In a previous report, Kaieteur News highlighted that GoG revealed that it is reviewing an additional 20 areas for Guyanese to participate in the rapidly expanding oil and gas sector.
If approved, this will cement opportunities in a total of 60 specified areas in the industry for citizens.
The mid-year report states, “stakeholder engagements for the revision of its first schedule continued, resulting in an additional 20 areas identified for consideration, potentially for inclusion in the first schedule under goods and services.”
The Local Content Act was passed in the National Assembly in December, 2021. It is intended to regulate the way companies operate in Guyana’s oil and gas sector; employ persons, buy services and the way that they procure goods.
The first schedule of the act sets out 40 categories of work for Guyanese participation via the supply of goods and the provision of services which include: food supply, rental of office space, accommodation, insurance, accounting and legal services. Foreign companies wanting to operate within those areas are required to partner with local firms. However, the law stipulates that the Guyanese partner must have 51% or more beneficial ownership, among other benefits.
According to the act, Guyanese must provide 90% of office space rental; 90% of accommodation services (rental of houses and apartments;25% pipe welding onshore; 75% non-hazardous waste management; 90% janitorial and laundry services; 90% catering; 75% food supply; 100% immigration services and 100% local insurance services to name a few.
The private sector here has called for increased local content targets in the schedule to shore up more opportunities for Guyanese. President of ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL), Alistair Routledge said oil and gas companies spent more than US$3.6B in local companies since operations commenced in 2019.
He said, “Collectively the industry has spent over US$3.6B in local companies. These are significant numbers and significant contributions, but in the theme of going beyond frontiers our ambition continues to be higher than that.”
To this end, Routledge noted that a lot more is still to be done where partnering with local companies is concerned. “This is tremendous progress by any metric in any other country but we believe that there is a lot more we can do and so the collaboration as we continue to move forward and the discussions at the (2027 Guyana Energy) conference will be incredibly important to ensure that we can continue to do that,” the Country Manager added. Already, more than 2000 local vendors have been registered to benefit from local content opportunities.
Source: Kaieteur News
