Dear Editor,
I refer to the letter in Stabroek News on Wednesday January 25, 2023, by Mr. Jamil Changlee of CRG, entitled “Cost to maintain gas pipeline has not been addressed” and wish to make the following comments.
While I agree that the cost of the piping is exorbitant and the cost to maintain the same has not been addressed; I beg to differ with the statements that “given the alternatives available the need for it is unnecessary” and “focusing on the use of sea vessels for the transport of the gas”.
I say this because having attended a few conferences on the use of LNG and CNG in power plants, I investigated the possibility of using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) ships to transport Natural Gas to Guyana and have concluded that it would not be feasible because of the draft restriction in the Demerara River.
The ideal size of a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vessel for a 50 MMscf per day demand and a 500 km round trip would be four-day capacity or 200 MMscf for a two-vessel operation. The loading time of the vessel would be two days and the turnaround time would be one day. This means that while one vessel is offloading, the other one would have adequate time to make a round trip and load.
CNG ships are basically floating pipelines because they store the compressed natural gas in bundles of small diameter pipes connected together. Australia’s Global Energy Ventures (GEV) has a design for a vessel called CNG Optimum 200. https://splash247.com/cash-raised-to-help-fund-innovative-cng-carriers/. The principal particulars of that vessel are a capacity of 200 MMscf with a pipe gas storage of 209 km pipe length and 400 mm (16 inch) diameter. The lightship (empty) draft of this vessel would be 8.2 meters and the design draft (loaded) would be 9.2 meters.
The draft of the Demerara River was recently dredged to a depth of 9 meters which means that this vessel would not be able to transit the river to discharge the gas. Of course, a smaller vessel of 100 MMscf could be used, but this would mean using four vessels which would be unmanageable and uneconomical.
The Gas to Shore project is a done deal and I believe that organizations such as The Cooperative Republicans of Guyana (CRG) should dedicate their energies and expertise to make ExxonMobil and their partners pay for the Gas pipeline and the cost of its operations and maintenance.
Yours truly,
Tara Singh
