GuySuCo preparing Sugar Terminal to capitalise on oil and gas opportunities

The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is now eyeing the oil and gas sector and has entered into a multi-million-dollar venture to maximise on the opportunities that will be created from the budding petroleum industry.
This new venture will see GuySuCo desilting the river channel alongside its largest berthing facility located at the Demerara Sugar Terminal (DST) in Ruimveldt, Georgetown.

The multi-million-dollar project commenced on May 1, 2021, and is a collaborative initiative between the Maritime Administrative Department (MARAD), Ministry of Public Works and GuySuCo. It is expected to be completed by May 14, 2021. The last time the channel was desilted was in 2014.
The berthing facility is located on the east bank of the Demerara River. It was built with concrete and steel several decades ago and is used by ships transporting sugar for bulk storage at the Demerara Sugar Terminal to be sold on both the local and export markets
But according to the Manager of GuySuCo’s DST, Roger Bradshaw, the facility has the potential to dock large vessels once the desilting process is completed.

Further, Bradshaw lauded the initiative to desilt the river channel, noting that this is very much needed since the huge deposit of silt was affecting the operational efficiency at the Demerara Sugar Terminal. He explained that this sometimes results in an increased operational cost to offload or load a vessel.
“During low tides, we cease operations and wait until the water rises during high tide for us to complete our tasks whether its offloading or loading a vessel,” the DST Manager stated in a missive from GuySuCo on Friday.
Nevertheless, Bradshaw said there will be a significant increase in operational efficiency due to the reduced number of stoppages as a result of the built-up silt.
On completion of the desilting process, ships with a maximum length of 400 metres and a draft of 7 metres can berth at the DST facility.
This venture is integral to GuySuCo’s Strategic Plan to maximise the usage of all its facilities to become economically viable once again. As such, GuySuCo intends to extend the services offered at the Demerara Sugar Terminal in wake of the increasing demand for such services by Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector.
In keeping with its promise to revive the cash-strapped sugar industry, the PPP/C Government, since taking office, has injected some $7 billion into the sugar industry – $5 billion in the 2020 Emergency Budget and a further $2 billion in the 2021 budget – to help in the turnaround of the sector. Additionally, another $200 million was recently given to GuySuCo for a one-off retroactive payment to sugar workers.
However, even as Government continues to come to the rescue of the sugar industry, which was downsized by the APNU/AFC Administration, the current management of GuySuCo is hoping to move away from its reliance on the State.
During an interview with Guyana Times back in February, Chief Executive Officer, Sasenarine Singh said they want to make enough money so that GuySuCo is able to self-generate its revenue and pay for itself.
“The way we can navigate out of this pain is to bring more cash onto the table. And the only way we can do that – we cannot continue this model of running to the treasury and saying we want more, we want more – we have to self-generate more revenue,” the CEO said.
“And that’s why we have to be very careful how we expand operations. Operations have to be done carefully. And once it’s done carefully, we create the market at the value-added level to push off that production, rather than produce and stop… 2021 is a key year. And we’re turning this whole business to being more resilient.”
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has said that GuySuCo needs to explore several possibilities for sugar, including producing white sugar, and exporting to the Caribbean market and distilleries, among its plans to revive the industry. As such, ethanol production and agro-energy are being considered.
Diversification of the sugar industry has been one of the methods pushed by the PPP even while in opposition.
This was when the former Government had closed the Wales Estate in 2016, and subsequently shut down the Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon estates, leaving only the Uitvlugt, Blairmont and Albion estates operating.
However, the monies allocated to GuySuCo last year in the PPP/C’s emergency budget was for the phased reopening of the latter three estates that were closed.