Dear Editor,
Trinidad & Tobago (TT) have recently launched their “natural gas audit results” for the year ending 2022. Given this, the publisher of Kaieteur News (KN), Glenn Lall, sought to sell a misleading story viz-à-viz a so-called comparison, suggesting that the Guyanese Government has failed to uphold a similar standard as regards Guyana’s natural gas resources. The story by the KN publisher however lacked context.
According to TT’s “Gas Master Plan (2015), TT has been a commercial producer of natural gas since 1953 (71 years to date), and it has only started to conduct audits of this kind annually since 2001; that is, forty-eight (48) years later, since becoming a commercial producer of natural gas (1953).
In the case of Guyana, natural gas has so far been established in the Liza-1 field that is sufficient to monetize. ExxonMobil is still conducting feasibility studies in other fields in order to determine whether those fields have natural gas that could be commercialised.
The Government of Guyana is currently finalizing a “Gas Strategy” for the country. It is important to note that the natural gas resources from the Liza-1 field, which is associated with the gas-to-energy (GtE) project, would be derived as a byproduct from the drilling of crude oil. As part of Guyana’s gas master plan, the Government has to consider whether natural gas production would be pursued as a separate development, as in the case of TT.
Therefore, considering Guyana’s current state in terms of natural gas production, it is premature to conduct “gas audits” of a similar nature as in the case of TT. The natural gas resources in Guyana have not yet been fully explored, and Guyana has not yet started to produce its gas resources.
It is unfortunate and mischievous that media entities are omitting context altogether when putting out these stories. The omission of context and facts is becoming the norm of the day in some sections of the media fraternity. It is also improper to compare and contrast a 100+-year-old industry with a 4-year-old industry.
Sincerely,
Joel Bhagwandin
