ExxonMobil moves ahead with plans for major office complex
US oil giant, ExxonMobil, is moving ahead with plans to construct a two-building office here. The company has kick started the process by advertising online and in the daily newspapers. It is making Requests for Information (RFI).
The oil operator said that the RFI is geared at gathering information on the market for contractors who can provide all of the following services: construction of two buildings for 250 seats; an outdoor pavilion; paving; landscaping; fill and storm drainage; site utilities; plumbing utilities; and electrical works.
ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), said it will provide the designs and blueprints of the buildings.
The RFI, according to the advertisement, will only be used to gather information which the EEPGL will use to select qualified suppliers for a future bid.
In late January, Kaieteur News had exposed how the oil giant had plans of developing 10 acres of land under the control of Ogle Airport Inc (OAI), the company that operates the Eugene F. Correia International Airport. This publication also exposed how OAI was ready to sublease the land to ExxonMobil. The only stall was the approval that had to come from Lands and Surveys. Since that time, it appears however that this approval was given. But there was no announcement in this regard.
ExxonMobil has been given prompt and favourable response from OAI but there are local aircraft operators who are not even given respect by the OAI, much less lands. This newspaper learnt of one small operator who has two aircrafts.
The young pilot and entrepreneur applied for a simple 100 square feet with the intended purpose of building a hanger. His application was not even acknowledged by OAI. “It is like we are aliens in our own country.”
The applicant’s request for 100 square feet is equivalent to 0.00229568 acre. ExxonMobil’s application was for 10 acres which is equal to 435,600 square feet. Ogle International Airport, recently renamed Eugene F. Correia International Airport, is not owned by the Government of Guyana. Ogle International Airport is owned by the Private Sector Company OAI, by virtue of a lease issued by the Lands and Survey Department for 441 acres.
The land lease to OAI is bound by specific conditions agreed to between the government and OAI.
The lease secured by OAI International Airport Company specifies that it must first cater to the needs of those in the aviation sector. Yet, locals in the aviation industry are being bypassed; “Our small applications have been ignored but the great ExxonMobil has been able to secure over 10 acres.”
The Lease Agreement provides for the Airport to be “developed and operated as a public aviation facility in accordance with the Civil Aviation Laws of Guyana and compliant with all other applicable laws, statute, regulations and international agreements that pertain to the operations of an international airport, including those promulgated by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association and other international bodies having jurisdiction.”
(Kaieteur News)