– Jagdeo says Govt will enter negotiations with top-ranked firm
Progress is being made when it comes to the Request for Proposals (RFP) that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had put out for an oil refinery. So far, four out of the 11 companies that had submitted proposals last year have been shortlisted.
Giving this update was Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, during a recent interview with select media houses. According to Jagdeo, of the 11 proposals that were submitted, the Natural Resources Ministry’s evaluation team has narrowed it down to four.
“The Ministry had set up a team to do a spreadsheet on all of the proposals that we receive. There are about 11 proposals. I think these have been narrowed down to about four that met almost all of the parameters that we requested in the RFP. So that now needs to move to the next stage.”
“So that is where we are based on that Request for Proposals. That is as far as we got. The next stage is to rank these. The ones that are compliant and then start the discussions with the number one ranked firm, to see if we can reach agreement on the refinery,” Jagdeo said.
Last month, it was announced that the Dominican Republic was exploring the possibility of collaborating with Guyana for the establishment of a crude oil refinery here. This was revealed by Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader, during a one-day visit to Georgetown. The visiting Head of State was accompanied by a delegation comprising of both Government and private sector officials.
Following brief bilateral talks between President Dr Irfaan Ali and President Abinader at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre in Greater Georgetown, senior Ministers from the two regional nations signed three pacts to strengthen collaborations including a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in energy-related matters.
In 2022, a Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued for companies to express their interest in constructing a 30,000-barrels per day (bpd) refinery. Specifically, companies were asked to submit bids for the design, finance, and construction of the oil refinery, which will be located at the mouth of the Berbice River.
According to the RFP that was issued, construction on the refinery was expected to begin in 2023, with the project expected to be completed within two years. The refinery was to be located near the Berbice River.
The plan for the refinery’s construction ties into the Government’s vision of promoting value-added production and securing energy security both for Guyana and the Caribbean. It is also an integral part of the Government’s developmental plan for Region Six.
An oil refinery is an industrial plant that transforms crude oil into various usable petroleum products, such as diesel, gasoline, lubricants and heating oils like kerosene.
Refineries serve as the second stage in the crude oil production process, following the extraction of crude oil from the earth.
Once the refinery at Berbice becomes operational, Guyana will be able to sell crude oil components to various industries for a broad range of purposes, including fuels for transportation, heating, paving roads, and generating electricity and raw materials for chemical manufacturing.
This would attract global investments due to soaring fuel prices worldwide, the increased cost of heating as time goes by, and a lack of adequate refining capacity to process crude into gasoline and diesel.
Neighbouring states including Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Aruba, The Netherlands Antilles, Cuba, Jamaica, British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, Barbados and Suriname possess oil refineries as well.
