The 2024 Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo opened this morning at the Marriott Hotel with President Irfaan Ali unveiling parts of Guyana’s Oil and Gas Master Plan, which will see major investments in Guyana’s infrastructure to support the country’s ambitions in transportation and logistics.

The President told delegates of the Conference that the Government intends to invest heavily in infrastructure development to bolster trade, and transform Guyana into an important transport and logistics hub for countries in the region.

“In Northern Brazil, they import about 8 million tons of food related imports, and they export 13 million tons but guess what? To move this to the port, it takes them two weeks. Coming through Guyana, will take less than two days, coming through Guyana will take less than two days. Our geographic position now places us on a competitive path to be the shipping, logistics solution for Northern Brazil and more importantly, to make them more competitive, and that justifies and add to the rate of return for the deep-water port,” the President explained. 

He spoke about plans for a deep water port in Berbice, which he believes would serve as a game changer for both Guyana and Brazil.

President Ali said the Master Plan also takes the local bauxite industry into consideration, noting that while the country has been a prime exporter of the raw bauxite, the master plan provides the opportunity for the country to engage in upstream and high value production of alumina through the utilization of cheaper and reliable energy. 

“With our neighbour Suriname and Guyana combine, we have about 1.5 billion metric tons of bauxite, that’s the reserved. With the natural gas, and the cost of energy coming down, we can now move to upscale, high value manufacturing in aluminum plant, building an aluminum plant to support the deep-water port. This is the value addition, this is the value creation, this is what it opens up,” he said.

He said there is also tremendous interest in a gold refinery in Guyana.

President Ali said Guyana’s future will depend heavily on reliable and efficient energy.

However, he noted that at the moment, the country does not have the quantum of energy that is needed to drive industrialization and manufacturing, which is critical to the country’s development. 

It was against that background that he lobbied the key players in the Energy Sector to support Guyana’s quest to develop its natural gas resources. The conference has brought together more than 800 delegates from around the world.

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