Following the recent meeting with Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and Public Service, Dr Ashni Singh, and US Exim Bank officials in Washington, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo says that the bank’s board is likely to discuss the US$660 million funding for the Gas-to-Energy (GtE) project at an October meeting.
“They are aiming to go to the Board by October [for a] Board meeting, but all of the technical and environmental work has been completed and they have all of the information necessary to go to the Board,” Jagdeo yesterday said at a press conference he hosted at Freedom House.
The Vice President, who also holds oversight for the oil and gas sector, said that the Finance Minister will provide additional details on the meeting. “Ashni Singh met with EXIM Bank and he is going to tell you about it and that they have indicated that they have all of the information they need to go to the Board.”
On Saturday, a press release from the Ministry of Finance stated that Singh had met with the Senior Advisor to the President and Chair, Larry T. Decker, and other senior and technical officials of the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of the United States in Washington DC, where discussions surrounding the Bank’s support for the GtE project which the government has said will cut energy charges by half.
The press release had varied from the constant line of a 50 per cent cut by stating it would “significantly reduce electricity costs”.
The project “when completed, is expected to significantly reduce electricity costs, increase the competitiveness of other industries, and reduce the nation’s reliance on heavy fossil fuels. During that high-level meeting, Dr. Singh also expressed appreciation to the Bank for their continued support to Guyana, and reiterated that the Government values greatly, its relationship with the Bank,” the release had stated.
The government has vowed to find alternative means to finance the gas project if the US EXIM Bank funding isn’t approved.
In the face of a delay to the US$660 million loan application to finance the Wales GtE project, coupled with the US’ recent pausing on new approvals of LNG exports which activists hope would extend globally, Jagdeo said in February this year that Guyana would consider other plans.
“I don’t want to speculate about the EXIM Bank funding because we anticipate that the funding will be available, and as I have said before, it would be retroactive funding. However, without disclosing the sources that we have, we have already been talking about a contingent line of credit that could easily supplant that,” he told a press conference at Freedom House in Georgetown.
“Secondly, from the Budget. We have already been financing, beyond the first US$100 million that we have put into the project, from budgetary sources. So that is the first year. We have been making payments to the company from the budget. So those are the two sources – [our] own revenue from the Budget and from a contingent line of credit that we are already discussing,” he added.
In July 2022, the Government of Guyana and the EXIM Bank of the United States signed a historic US$2 billion Memo-randum of Understanding (MoU), with specific focus on infrastructure, energy, water and sanitation, information and communications technology, and agriculture. Then in April of 2023, Guyana made the US$660 million loan application.
During the four-day visit to the United States, the release said that Singh, accompanied by Guyana’s Ambassador to the US, Samuel Hinds, met with the Deputy Assistant Secretary, United States Department of Treasury, Michael Kaplan, in Washington DC where he updated Kaplan on recent economic developments and prospects in Guyana and explored opportunities for the two countries to collaborate on matters of shared interest. He also reiterated the Government of Guyana’s commitment to maintaining a favourable macroeconomic environment and strong institutional framework which will facilitate increased opportunities for US companies to do business in Guyana.
Sanctions applied here this year by the US Department of the Treasury against two gold dealers and a permanent secretary sent shockwaves throughout Georgetown.
