Announcing the start of work by the recently appointed Gas to Shore Project Advisory Committee, President Irfaan Ali has said he anticipates the project to materialize by 2023 to deliver affordable energy to Guyanese.
“We have Mr (Winston) Brassington on that committee… they are right now doing the ground work, getting the information, you know, before moving to strong negotiations,” Ali announced on Monday when asked by Stabroek News about when the advisory committee would start work.
“But our intention, and my hope is work we want to get done, at least by the end of 2023 we can have the gas-to-shore project up and running and we can have natural gas powered energy so that our energy cost can come down,” he added, while noting that all stakeholders will be engaged.
Just over a week ago, Stabroek News reported that Brassington, the former Chief Executive Officer of NICIL, would head government’s Gas-to- Shore advisory committee that will report on the most viable options for the project.
The PPP/C had campaigned on reducing electricity costs and pledged to “hit the ground running to reduce power costs with natural gas.”
Shortly after being sworn in and as he announced plans for the oil and gas sector, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo reiterated the party’s position. He had also stated that his government has gathered that ExxonMobil was moving rapidly on the project but that the past APNU+AFC government had “put …roadblocks in this regard”.
“We have a couple of studies we are going through. We cannot look at what they didn’t do. We have to get it done and we want this done urgently. We have to be guided by the best technical minds but we want this project on the road as early as possible. In that engagement, we will have to get the cost that is very different than is in the contract. The contract locks in a price for the first 300 to 400 megawatts of power. We need the electricity to generate (power for) this country and fulfill the promise that we will cut their electricity bill. This is a project of high priority, we want to engage with Exxon…ExxonMobil is eager to move along and from what I gather is, they have been waiting for government to show interest”, Jagdeo had said.
But he added that environmental issues for all projects of the US oil major must be harnessed and government will “ensure that we have a commitment from ExxonMobil, because all of these issues are interlinked, a commitment that there will be adequate provisions for any environmental disaster, in the contract and by Exxon. We have to satisfy ourselves that that is so. Flaring [from oil extraction] is a key issue and we have to deal with that. We have already signalled that we don’t want flaring. We don’t want flaring,” he added.
Additionally, fiscal terms will also be an area and the committee will analyse financial models to determine best options.
“This is a project we are committed to, and as a matter of fact we are hoping we can start the actual project laying of pipelines from next year and maybe simultaneously build the power plant at the same time,” Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat has said.
While identifying Clonbrook, Mahaica on the East Coast of Demerara, as the best location for bringing natural gas to shore for domestic use, a 2017 desk study done for the APNU+AFC government put the cost of doing this at US$304 million at least.
