ExxonMobil to launch survey on oil and gas labour shortage

Battling a labour shortage amid plans to bring several oil and gas fields into production, ExxonMobil has paid for a study on skilled and professional persons, that American supermajor’s President Alistair Routledge said on Wednesday.

“ExxonMobil has commissioned an industrial baseline study that would be completed later this year. It will help us with two things: an understanding of what is today’s baseline of workforce capacity, what can the educational institutions deliver by way of additional training; of raising the capability of that capacity. And then on the flip-side is what is the demand that is coming for the workforce, not just in the oil and gas sector but across other sectors of the economy?” he said.

He said that aspect would be critical to understand in order to avoid the ‘Dutch Disease’ in which one industry robs the capacity from the rest of the economy to the detriment to the long-term economic stability.

Mr Routledge also told the handover ceremony for the letter of approval of local content plans that the education sector would be a critical partner. He said generally, there is a growing labour shortage for the oil and gas sector.

“It’s a common feeling that we are finding it harder and harder to find additional Guyanese workers and especially the continued challenge of raising the education levels, the skill levels for an industry that is highly demanding on quality and expertise,” he said.

The top ExxonMobil official said latest figures up to December 31, 2025 show that 68 percent of the oil sector’s workforce is Guyanese of which one-third is women.

In ExxonMobil’s workforce, he said more than 50 percent are women.

He also revealed that 1,800 offshore workers are Guyanese, several of whom had been trained to high standards overseas.

While ExxonMobil does not have a field workforce like SBM Offshore, SAIPEM or Baker Hughes, Mr Routledge said the statistics show that “there are willing workers in the country”.

“What we need to do collectively is to raise the capacity, the capability but also make the workforce enabling and welcoming for everybody in the country,” he said.