Shifting logistics activity in Trinidad and Guyana

Trinidad and Tobago

Sean Patience, managing director of Cargo Consolidators Agency (CCA), talks to The Energy Year about where the company is seeing demand for its freight forwarding services in both the Trinidadian and Guyanese markets and the benefits of its 3PL warehousing. CCA is a Trinidadian freight forwarding company for the local and Guyanese hydrocarbons sectors.

What does Cargo Consolidators’ current activity look like?
Our business has remained more or less the same over the last year. We have provided our services in the energy industry for years, so we are simply trying to maintain our level of activity until the new projects are commissioned and we are able to bid for those contracts.
Currently, the upstream sector is relatively quiet in terms of activity, so more of our work is coming from the downstream, where we may get three or four projects a year. Our service involves transporting parts for the plants that are undergoing overhauls and upgrades. We provide international shipping services to the clients by bringing the parts from their suppliers in the US or Europe, and sometimes sending parts back to those overseas territories if they need repairs.

How are you positioning the company to seize more opportunities as plant turnarounds begin to increase?
There could be a lot of turnaround activity in the coming years. Usually, the turnarounds are spread throughout the year, so there is no need to add additional staff. We do a lot of schedule planning internally, so we have the teams ready for the jobs. And then when it goes back to normal or the slow period, we can schedule time off.
Our freight management software also allows us to automate some tasks, so hopefully we can continue to upgrade our systems to tackle higher volumes.
Also, having reliable, knowledgeable agents overseas when orders start to come in is key, so we engage in some cross training by having some staff go abroad to understand that side of the business so we can better serve the customer.
We also have good business relationships with our air and ocean carriers and can ask for expedited service when required to achieve the tight timelines that the customer may demand.

What level of activity are you experiencing from upstream companies?
We continue to provide services to our upstream clients in Trinidad, but there is a lot more upstream activity for us in Guyana. We work with the service providers who work for ExxonMobil. We move cargo for these service providers to work on drilling activities – this is where the bulk of shipping is right now for Guyana’s upstream sector.

How do you expect to see opportunities grow for Cargo Consolidators in Guyana?
Opportunities in Guyana will increase in the coming years, with new bidders for additional offshore blocks. Their other sectors have also been benefiting from activity in their oil and gas sector, so there will be opportunities for logistics services beyond the energy industry.
Construction projects are ramping up, so there is already movement in that regard.

What challenges have you experienced in Guyana as the country continues to develop?
One of the problems that Guyana is facing right now is a shortage of labour. Many investors have entered the market to set up companies, creating a higher demand for all kinds of services. The main issue they are facing now is getting adequate talent. It’s simply because the pace of growth is rapid.

How do you think the development of Guyana’s energy industry will further impact its workforce?
When the oil and gas sector emerged in Trinidad many years ago, it offered better salaries for qualified workers, and as a result, all the other industries suffered from a lack of available labour, as workers moved to the higher-paying jobs.
Once people are qualified, any upstream or downstream company would offer much more attractive salaries than many other careers. Young people who have the opportunity to choose which career path they want to be qualified for are likely going to go after one where they can get maximum earning potential. If that’s the oil and gas sector, then the other industries will end up paying for it. That’s the biggest challenge I see in Guyana: that the availability of labour in other sectors could potentially be negatively affected.

What are the benefits of your 3PL warehousing service?
Our third-party logistics service involves outsourcing a client’s warehousing. It could be long term or short term. We provide all the services needed – such as attendees, forklifts, drivers and so on – so that the client can concentrate on their main business matters. And it’s a scalable system so that a client only pays for the space they need for the time that they require. It becomes a variable cost instead of a fixed cost and enables a company to control its cashflow a lot better.

What response to this service offering have you seen from the energy industry?
We have gotten more response for this service from the manufacturing sector, as well as some from the petrochemicals sector. Some petrochemicals companies have utilised this service to store chemicals and other items that they wouldn’t use every day. They bring some items into the country and use temporary storage until the item is needed in their projects. We store it safely in our facilities at a lower cost so that they don’t have the cost to establish a warehouse on their own.
Most of our clients are multinationals. A company can register a local entity and operate by simply having one salesperson on the ground. When they need to dispatch an order, we will do that for them and update the WMS [warehouse management system]. The company can now control costs better as they are only paying for space they use and the time that they use it. It is a good strategy for companies to test the market or rapidly scale up or down.

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