Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has assured that Guyana will secure a US$660 Million loan from the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of the United States to finance the Government’s flagship Gas-to-Energy Project.
The Vice President offered the assurance on Thursday at a press conference.
“Exim Bank is fully on board with this project. We have had a technical team come and done an assessment on the project because that’s how banks work,” the Vice President told reporters during a party press conference at Freedom House.
There was some doubt over the loan arrangement after it was reported that the Finance Minister met solo with senior officials of the Bank in the US.
Last year, Guyana signed a US$2 Billion Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bank.
In brushing aside the concerns, the Vice President told reporters that meetings with the bank have been progressing well.
“We had a great meeting with the vice president of the bank, we had a dinner with the ambassador, they have said to me, state department is supporting, department of commerce, Exim Bank, treasury, every arm of the US government and including the congress,” he said.
According to the Vice President, the multi-billion-dollar project is going well.
“We didn’t ask to borrow US$2B, so, he has it wrong here again. The President of Exim Bank offered a $2B line of credit to Guyana. We are not seeking to borrow $2B. That’s where he has it wrong. They are not going to take the $2B and credit it to our account tomorrow. We didn’t ask for that,” the Vice President explained.
It was further explained that while the Natural Gas Power Plant at Wales will cost the Government US$759M, the loan amount being sought is US$660M because the Government has already financed aspects of the project using US$100M from the Treasury.
The project, which includes the construction of a 300-megawatt power plant, is expected to be completed by December 2024. ExxonMobil Guyana expected to foot the cost to construct the pipeline to the tune of US$1 Billion.
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