Guyanese businesses benefiting from the oil and gas boom must compete on quality and price rather than rely on legislation to secure their place in the industry, Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat has warned.
Bharrat said the Local Content Act was designed to give Guyanese businesses a meaningful opportunity to participate in the petroleum sector, not to protect companies that deliver poor-quality goods and services at excessive prices.
“The local content legislation is not to protect you in anywhere,” the minister said during the opening ceremony of the World Trade Centre Georgetown’s International Trade and Investment Conference on Tuesday.
He challenged local suppliers to become competitive not only in Guyana but also across the region and internationally, arguing that businesses must focus on meeting customers’ needs if they are to remain profitable.
The remarks place the spotlight on what comes next for Guyanese companies that have secured a foothold in one of the country’s fastest-growing industries: whether they can build the capacity, standards and efficiency needed to compete for larger contracts and expand beyond the domestic market.
Guyana’s Local Content Act was passed in December 2021 to increase the participation of Guyanese nationals and companies in the oil and gas supply chain.
The government has since reported significant growth in local participation. In June 2026, the Department of Public Information reported that oil companies spent an estimated US$3.6 billion with local suppliers by the end of 2025, according to ExxonMobil Guyana’s president and general manager, Alistair Routledge. Approximately 2,000 local suppliers were engaged in the industry at that time.
Bharrat, meanwhile, said more than 1,200 local businesses were engaged directly or indirectly in providing goods and services to the sector, while almost 7,000 Guyanese had been trained and employed in oil and gas.
Those figures point to the scale of local participation, but the number of businesses involved does not, on its own, show how much each company earns, how profitable it is or how much value remains in Guyana.
For smaller suppliers, the challenge can extend beyond securing an initial contract. Businesses may need to invest in equipment, certification, specialised staff, insurance and working capital to meet the requirements of international operators and their contractors.
Bharrat said the government had pressed ahead with local content legislation despite concerns that mandatory local participation would discourage foreign investment.
He argued that the policy has helped break the pattern in which international oil companies rely heavily on established overseas suppliers with whom they have longstanding relationships.
However, he was clear that local participation should not come at the expense of service quality or reasonable prices.
“The local content legislation was never designed to inculcate or encourage mediocrity in terms of the provision of goods and services at exorbitant prices,” he said.
His message raises important questions about how local content is measured and enforced, including whether suppliers are building sustainable businesses, whether customers are receiving value for money and whether Guyanese firms can eventually compete for contracts outside the country.
The government has also indicated that it intends to expand the range of services covered by the legislation, potentially creating further opportunities for local businesses.
That expansion could widen access to the petroleum supply chain, but it would also increase the importance of ensuring that companies have the capacity to deliver what they promise.
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