Oil companies must employ locals in front of foreigners – Suriname oil law

No stone is left unturned when it comes to Suriname securing maximum benefits for its people. In fact, the Surinamese Petroleum Law explicitly mandates that the employment of foreign personnel is strictly limited to functions for which there are no experienced and qualified Surinamese nationals available.
In layman’s terms, this means than unless Surinamese are not qualified for a job, locals must always be chosen in front of foreigners/expatriates.

The Petroleum Laws go on to mandate that oil companies must utilize all possibilities so that Surinamese nationals can gain expertise in and acquire responsible positions in the activities within the law.
Interestingly, this rigid rule is not only absent from the Local Content Laws of Guyana, but also the draft Local Content Policy that was finalized by United Kingdom Consultant, Dr. Michael Warner. ExxonMobil happens to be one of Dr. Warner’s clients. Notably, in a series of articles, Kaieteur News had exposed how Dr. Warner had ignored and removed key recommendations to give Guyanese an advantage in the oil sector.

Surinamese Petroleum Laws also mandate that companies are required to provide a report demonstrating the number of employees engaged in petroleum operations in Suriname, identified by nationality to the extent that providing such information does not cause the contractor to violate any laws. This report must be submitted no later than 90 days following the end of each calender year.
This unbending provision is also missing from the Guyana laws, as well as the Production Signing Agreement (PSA) signed between government and ExxonMobil. In fact, this oil major continues to fail to submit a breakdown of the job description, salaries, and even the plans in place to increase this workforce by more than 55 percent.

Further to this, no data was provided for the public to analyze if there was any progression in the employment of Guyanese to senior positions from 2015 to now. Instead, Exxon continues to spew flowery claims and provides no evidence on its use of locals in Guyana.