CH&PA approves 39 land applications for oil and gas projects

The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) has approved dozens of applications for acres of land across the country to be used for oil and gas-related development projects.

For the year, the CH&PA received 44 applications for land across the country for oil and gas development projects. However, only 39 were approved.
This is according to CH&PA’s Chief Development Planner, Germene Stewart, who on Monday told the media that a number of these projects will be seen in the future.
“You will see things will [have] started. You’ll see development that Guyana never experienced before in terms of mud plant…well the chemical storage some of them were not favourably considered but we are planning for those things in the future and that plan will take that into account,” Stewart said.
The agency was mum on which areas across the country lands were allocated for these projects. However, Stewart explained that the CH&PA has started a redevelopment plan at Houston, Greater Georgetown, in relation to the oil and gas sector and has met with various stakeholders for consultations.
“We have already started the process in terms of developing a special area redevelopment plan for an area within Houston that has really seen land conversion or pressure for the oil and gas sector. So we are really proactive in terms of meeting with developers, landowners, and had a first round of consultation on how we move forward,” she stated.
Further, the Chief Development Planner said that applications which were not approved were due to incompatibility issues regarding the purpose of land use: “Some that were rejected [are] based in terms of compatibility where land use is not compatible with our residential areas,” she explained.
Overall for the year 2019, the agency reported that it had received 914 applications for both oil and gas projects and other unrelated projects. Of these, 905 were processed and 714 approved.