ExxonMobil pledges partnership with Guyana to develop market for gas

ExxonMobil Guyana Limited President, Alistair Routledge, has affirmed the company’s commitment to collaborating with Guyana to develop a gas market that will enable the country to effectively monetise its gas reserves.
During a sit down with locally owned OilNow, Routledge spoke about ways in which Exxon is helping Guyana with its gas resources. He acknowledged that Guyana’s market for monetising gas is uncharted water, but made it clear that the company is willing to help Guyana.
“This is going to be a collaborative effort. I mentioned early on, developing gas is a lot more complicated than developing the oil fields. There’s not necessarily gas, because you have to understand the resource. What it takes to develop it, but you also have to have a market. We all know, there isn’t an established gas market in Guyana today. So, we have to work on developing that.”

“So, it means what sort of demand off takers could there be? Everything from do we support the… conversion to alumina, other AI (Artificial Intelligence) data centres, could there be more power generation, all sorts of potential uses of gas that can fuel the country and various industries for the future,” Routledge explained.
The Government of Guyana has been actively exploring ways in which it could monetise gas resources. As a matter of fact, last year the Government had contracted United States (US)-based company Fulcrum LNG to develop these monetisation options. The company is expected to work in a tripartite arrangement with the Guyana Government and ExxonMobil to develop another potential gas project.
One channel in which the Government is looking to utilise gas is in Phase One and Two of its Gas-to-Energy (GtE) Projects, the first phase of which is currently being built at Wales, West Bank Demerara (WBD).
The Guyana Government already anticipates that the GtE Project would earn the country as much as US$500 million in savings when electricity prices are slashed by half and from the sale of the rich excess gas.
It has also been theorised that the liquids that would come when Guyana cleans the excess gas for products such as cooking gas or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) can be sold, and that would further bolster the country’s earnings from the GtE Project.

Invitations are currently open for proposals to design, construct, and operate a 250-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle power plant, capable of delivering 2,100 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity per year, for sale to Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc.
These invitations also include proposals for the design, construction, and operation of an additional Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility, capable of producing approximately 6,000 barrels per day of NGL products such as propane, butane, and C5+ gasoline.

Suriname
Meanwhile, Routledge also spoke about the potential for collaboration between Guyana and Suriname, on developing their respective gas resources. While this has been a talking point for some time, the recent energy conference and supply chain expo saw talks advance between Guyana and Suriname state oil company Staatsolie.
“I often think it’s hard enough to get a company and a Government to agree to things, so when you put two Governments in… it adds a degree of complexity. But I would say from what I hear and I’ve had many conversations also with Annand Jagesar from Staatsolie, there is a willingness to collaborate.”
“There’s a willingness to come to the table and talk about what’s possible. And I think that’s the most important starting point. From there, we can build upon that. We can look for our best synergies,” Routledge further explained.
Presently, Suriname is forging ahead with its first offshore petroleum development project, which the Guyana Government had previously said opens up opportunities for the two nations to work together.
On the sidelines of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo (GECSCE) held in Georgetown last week, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo and Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat met with Managing Director of Staatsolie – Suriname’s state-owned oil company, Annand Jagesar, on Tuesday last to discuss that potential collaboration.
Jagesar subsequently told the Guyana Times that gas development needs volume and it makes sense for Guyana and Suriname to combine their resources to meet that scale. He had further explained that while there is a rush to develop these resources given the climate window, this has to be done in a well-thought-out manner.