Dear Editor,
It was refreshing to hear the Hon. Prime Minister Brigadier Mark Phillips’s statement in the National Assembly on the advancement of a Government of Guyana Policy (providing low-cost and reliable energy supply to the population). Every single Guyanese family craves the success of this Government Policy, since a power outage is not a normal thing in countries that are moving forward (Singapore, Netherlands, Belgium, etc.). The news announced by the Hon. Prime Minister: that 58% of the Gas to Shore Project was completed, including the 300MW power plant, is most welcome, and with or without any loans, whatever resources available to the nation should be used to hit the 100% point.
What do we know about this Project?
The Project involves capturing associated gas produced from the crude oil production operations connected to the Liza Phase 1 (Destiny) and Liza Phase 2 (Unity) wells. To enable this gas to be available to Guyana, the following projects have been conceived and are in various stages of development, to the credit of the policymakers in Guyana under the leadership of His Excellency President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali:
• An offshore 220-kilometre subsea pipeline extending from subsea tie-ins at the Destiny and Unity FPSOs in the Stabroek Block to a proposed shore landing located approximately 3.5 kilometres west of the mouth of the Demerara River.
• An onshore pipeline, which is a continuation of the offshore pipeline, extending linearly for approximately 25 kilometres from the shore landing to a proposed Gas Plant on former sugar cane lands at the back of the Wales Factory site.
• An LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) Plant located approximately 25 kilometres upstream from the mouth of the Demerara River on the West Bank at the back of the Wales Factory site.
• A 300MW electricity (power) plant that will use some of the dry gas from the LNG Plant with the primary objective being the generation of low-cost and reliable electricity.
• A network of new and upgraded transmission lines and substations that is supported by some 75 high-grade power towers and 300 specialty stainless steel monopoles. This system is designed to transfer all of the bulk power generated by the 300 MW gas-powered electricity Plant, and to allow for its seamless injection into the National Grid.
The consequences of not having this project will be a retardant to our upliftment as a people economically and socially, and any act to stall this project must be seen by all right-minded and patriotic Guyana as anti-national, anti-patriotic, and even an act of perfidy.
At this point in the Project life, many questions have been asked in and out of Parliament, and all of them have been answered quite competently by many policymakers, in particular the Hon. Vice President Bharat Jagdeo. This is not 2013 / 2014 and whether a loan is secure or not secure, depends on the ability of Guyana to deliver on this project successfully to the people of Guyana.
The fact that 58% of this project has been completed with cash that was generated without borrowing a single cent on loan means that the 42% can be satisfactorily funded with or without the Bank Loan, and that is great news for Guyana.
Sincerely,
Surujdai Lilmohan
