Even with works moving apace for the much-anticipated gas-to-shore project which is expected to fulfill the country’s energy needs including addressing the longstanding power woes, the government is simultaneously looking at alternate uses for the excess gas which will become available.
Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat told media operatives on Tuesday that while government is focused heavily on energy generation in the gas-to-energy project, the excess natural resource produced represents a significant figure and could be converted to another use.
“The project would focus primarily on energy generation because that is our biggest problem in Guyana. We need cheaper, more reliable, and cleaner energy. This project would solve that problem.
“However, based on guaranteed now from Exxon in terms of the amount of gas coming in, there will be a few million that would remain, so we would have to find ways which we would utilise it to ensure that we may be in some small petrochemical industry, maybe fertiliser. We have not decided,” he explained.
The gas-to-shore project is a game-changing initiative that will see gas from the Liza Field offshore Guyana being pumped onshore to generate power.
The main objective of the initiative is to transport sufficient gas from the Stabroek Block’s petroleum operations to supply some 200-250 megawatts of energy to the national grid, leading to a significant reduction in electricity costs.
ExxonMobil has said that around 30 to 35 million cubic feet of natural gas would be required for the gas-to-shore project.
Recently-released data from Norwegian research company Rystad Energy had indicated that less than 20 per cent of the 1.8 billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent (BOE) discovered last year was gas.
A number of factors including geotechnical, geophysical and environmental factors were examined and Government had settled on Wales to land the pipelines for the project.
