Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday said that the ambitious gas to shore energy project will be a crucial one for Guyana’s energy sector and the Government is working assiduously to ensure it comes on stream for the benefit of all Guyanese.
“We have already started working on the gas to shore energy project, we have been defining the parameters, we have had several meetings with Exxon; and now I think we are clearer on the parameters we want; between 200 to 250 megawatts of power, and enough gas to do that and to supply the entire country with cooking gas,” Jagdeo outlined during a media conference today.
Providing an update on some of the key projects the Government has been engaged in thus far, Jagdeo posited that improving the country’s energy capacity is on top of the administration’s development agenda.
Guyana is currently generating electricity at nearly 17 to 20 US cents per kilowatt/hour; this is among the highest in the Region. On this basis, the Government had promised to reduce the cost of energy in the country by 50 per cent over the next five years.
To this end, the Government had set up a team to start negotiations on the gas to shore energy project. According to the Vice President, the project “will make a major difference to the system, because of the prices at which it will come in”.
“So we are working aggressively on that; that is, to bring in a huge baseload capacity at a lower price, that would cause us to change the entire dynamic of electricity production and pricing,” he noted.
He added that the Government is hopeful that the project will move into implementation stage early next year.
In an effort to further push this initiative, the Government has stipulated stiff fines and penalties in the Payara Licence against flaring of excess natural gas– something which Exxon has been flagged for doing in the Stabroek Block.
Exxon itself has said that the gas that would be required for the gas-to-shore project is available. Estimates have put the figure required for the gas to shore project at 30 to 35 million cubic feet of natural gas.
Previously released data from Norwegian research company Rystad Energy on Guyana had indicated that a little less than 20 per cent of the 1.8 billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent (BOE) discovered last year was gas.
The Haimara discovery made by Exxon last year was found to have 207 feet of high-quality gas condensate sandstone reservoirs. But for reasons unclear, little progress was made by the previous APNU/AFC Government on the gas to shore project. There had only been talk of natural gas and liquid petroleum plants, with the pipe carrying the gas to shore at a location along the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) and the power being integrated into the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) grid.
Meanwhile, in relation to renewable energy, Jagdeo revealed that the Government has already commenced efforts to resume the Amaila Hydro Power project.
“We have started reviewing the documents etc, to chart a pathway to hydropower development back again, because hydro power is crucial given our capability and capacity of the country; our abundant water resources,” he explained.
Jagdeo said that the Government believes that hydro power has an important part in the country’s energy mix in the future, and apart from that, it is renewable and environmentally friendly.
