Work is ongoing on a National Gas Strategy that, according to President Dr Irfaan Ali, will help to open up new opportunities for trade and energy security between Guyana and its bilateral partners.
On Tuesday, the President, in a joint press conference with British High Commissioner to Guyana, Jane Miller, OBE, spoke about opportunities for trade. Noting the importance of energy security, the President said that the National Gas Strategy being worked on would open up new opportunities for trade.
“We have some natural gas fields. We have not completed the natural gas strategy. But in that strategy, more opportunities will be opened up. And I had specific discussions with [then] Prime Minister Boris [Johnson], on how we can integrate and to encourage the UK – Government and Private Sector – to be part of the energy transformation for Guyana,” he said.
Added to this are Guyana’s oil blocks, some of which will go on auction soon as the Government finalises fiscal terms for them. According to President Ali, blocks have been set aside for Government-to-Government partnership.
“And as you know, we have some blocks that we’re going to auction off. I think very soon we’re going to move to the auctioning of some blocks. And we have some blocks that are set aside for what is termed Government-to-Government partnership. We’re looking at all our strategic partners with these blocks,” the President added.
The gas-to-shore project, which is pegged at more than US$1 billion, will feature approximately 220 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore from the Liza Destiny and Liza UnityFloating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to Wales, West Coast Demerara.
Upon landing on shore, the pipeline will continue for approximately 25 kilometres to the Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) plant to be constructed at Wales. The pipeline would be 12 inches in diameter and is expected to transport some 50 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of dry gas to the NGL Plant, but has the capacity to push as much 120 mmscfd.
The main feature of the gas-to-shore initiative is a power plant that will generate 250 to 300 megawatts of power using natural gas from offshore, which will significantly reduce the cost of electricity in Guyana. The aim is to deliver rich gas by the end of 2024 for the power plant while the NGL facility is slated to be online by 2025.
The gas-to-shore project, which has a 25-year lifespan, is expected to employ up to 800 workers during the peak construction stage, as well as some 40 full-time workers during the operations stage, and another 50 workers during the decommissioning stage.
Currently, Guyana, Suriname, and Brazil are in talks on the establishment of an energy corridor and unlocking the potential for a series of manufacturing and industrial developments. Other Caribbean nations, such as Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, are also looking to tap into this initiative.
Back in June at the Suriname Energy, Oil & Gas Summit & Exhibition, President Ali had disclosed that a regional energy strategy that would connect the oil and natural gas producers in the region was being crafted.
At the time, the Guyanese Leader had said that while Guyana, Suriname and Brazil had already started talks on combining their ability to create an energy corridor and unlock the potential for a series of manufacturing and industrial developments, Trinidad is also interested in working along with them in unlocking some of this potential.
There has been talk of an energy corridor for some time, with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) conducting both baseline and pre-feasibility studies. Guyana is, in fact, a party to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)on the Northern Arc (Arco Norte) Interconnection Project which seeks to evaluate the feasibility of possible collaboration on the energy transmission system for the electric interconnection of Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and the northern cities of Brazil.
