Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo has assured that the planned gas-to-energy project will go ahead, dismissing criticisms about the cost attached to the project, He said the criticisms are unjustified.
The project has been receiving an avalanche of criticism from the Parliamentary Opposition and sections of society. Cost associated with the project, as well as an agreement for the pipeline between Guyana and ExxonMobil- which will see Guyana repaying the oil company for 20 years for its share of the pipeline.
That part of the agreement continues not to find favor with the Opposition. But Mr. Jagdeo said Exxon’s involvement in the project is not for free but assured that the country’s coffers will not be burdened to pay ExxonMobil for its share of the pipeline.
“So how are we going to pay for this? When we sell the liquids—remember we take the gas and we extract the cooking gas and everything else. At the current price, we will get enough money to pay back for our share of the pipeline and we will even be able to pay for the power plant and the NGL facility. So what happens effectively is that we are financing this whole project from the sale of liquid which we are getting for free” Jagdeo said.
The construction of the pipeline, to be led by Exxon, is expected to cost over US$1.3 billion. The current estimated cost of the entire project is approximately US$2.2 billion, up from the initial US $900M.
In December, the Guyana government signed a US$759 million contract for the construction of the integrated Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) Plant and the 300-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant to be constructed at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
“I have said many times that we are going to own 100% of it, the power plant and the NGL facility to process to gas—100%, what is not clear about that—the government and people of Guyana will own that,” the Vice President assured.
US-based partnership CH4/Lindsayca was granted a no-objection by the government to construct the 300 megawatts (MW) combined cycle power plant and natural gas liquids (NGL) facility.
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