Despite an earlier pledge by the Government to get the process started for the construction of an oil refinery by the first quarter of this year, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo today declared that no final decision has been made on Guyana establishing its own refinery.

“The government is not yet ready to cross that bridge”, Mr. Jagdeo told reporters.

Last year the government announced that Berbice was identified as the area to construct a 30,000 barrel per day oil refinery.

In January, Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh announced that nine proposals were received by the government for the design, financing and construction of a local oil refinery at Crab Island, Region Six.

But today the Vice President said no such decision has been made.

“We have not made a decision as to whether we will go with the project as yet, we have had a number of interests and frankly speaking I did not pay too much attention to this, but we have not made a decision at the policy making level on whether we will go with the project and if so with whom and much less who will manage it,” the Vice President said.

The Government had indicated that it expected the project to be operationalized by the end of 2025.

It had also given a commitment to evaluate the bids by the first quarter of this year, so that the process could commence, but the Vice President has been back-peddling all of those previous statements by the Government.

“We will cross that bridge when we come to it but right now no decision has been made in that regard,” the Vice President noted.

 Up until late last year, Government was still locked in discussions on whether to refine Guyana’s crude in a neighboring country with an oil refinery or to have its own refinery here.

Trinidad and Tobago has long expressed interest in refining Guyana’s oil.

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