Government finalizing refined energy products agreement with US company

At the opening of the Guyana Energy Conference this morning, President Irfaan Ali announced that Guyana is currently finalizing a multibillion dollar investment deal with a US company that will see cheaper refined energy products being made available to Guyana and possibly stored here.

Speaking before local and international delegates, the President said the strategic investment by the US company – Curlew Midstream – will see an investment of approximately US$300M.

“That [project] will see the refined products coming into Guyana at cheaper prices, and that will see us creating a hub, creating a hub for the rest of the region here in Guyana, initially to fulfill national demand, and then expanding that the service to northern Brazil and the rest of the region,” President Ali explained.

President Ali said the investment, which would span a period of seven years, augurs well for the people of Guyana, and will generate billions of dollars for the country.

“You’re talking about close to US$7 billion of refined jewels imported here in Guyana alone, US$7 billion, when you look at the numbers in the next seven years. And then when you look at the numbers in CARICOM, what CARICOM’s internal consumption is, that’s about US$10 billion annually, US$10 billion annually. I’m not even talking Northern Brazil as yet,” the President said.

Describing the proposed investment as transformative, the President said it goes beyond economics and financial returns. He said it is an investment that would strengthen security, and expand partnerships with other countries, even as Guyana continues to pursue sustainable growth and development.

“Imagine us creating a refined product hub for the region, for northern Brazil here. Imagine the type of other logistical and all the other value creation and opportunity that it will bring. …So, you’ll have opportunity for the marine economy to probably develop and expand transport and logistics. Thousands of jobs will be created,” President Ali said.

In a statement, the Curlew Midstream company said the agreement with Guyana would enable
Guyana to execute trading agreements for United States-refined fuels to be stored in a state-of-the-art, local fuel storage facility that will initially house 750,000 barrels of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heavy fuel oil.

When operational the facility will supply not only Guyana with 100% of its domestic refined fuel needs, but will also enable Guyana to export the highest quality, non-sanctioned fuels to its sister CARICOM nations.

Meanwhile, the President also announced today that the Government is working to bring a second power plant on stream to complement the Gas-to-Energy Power Plant at Wales.

“So we’ll have two power plants here, and then we have to look at how we use the remaining gas from that pipeline to sustain national security in important areas, the development of a manufacturing and commercial hub that was surrounded in Wales development,” he said.

The second gas project will linked Berbice to support development taking place in that region. This year’s Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo has brought together more than 4000 delegates in addition to hundreds of local and foreign companies.