Gas-to-shore project: Govt will provide Parliament with all agreements – Bharrat to Opposition

…says supply, field development & other agreements currently being drafted

In keeping with the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government’s commitment to transparency and accountability, the Government will be providing the National Assembly with copies of all the agreements it signs with ExxonMobil for the Gas-to-Shore project.
This commitment was given by Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat in written responses to questions posed by Alliance For Change (AFC) Member of Parliament (MP) David Patterson.

Patterson, who is the Opposition’s point person on oil and gas, had asked the Minister to inform the National Assembly whether any agreements have been signed with Exxon for the Gas-to-Shore project. Additionally, the MP had asked the Minister to provide the House with copies of such an agreement.
An agreement with Exxon subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) was indeed signed since June of this year for the project, which only recently received environmental approval.
“This agreement sets out the principles and conditions for the commercial and technical arrangements of the Gas to Energy project. There are other agreements on supply, buyers’ agreement, field development, licensing conditions, onshore works and land matters that are currently being drafted,” Bharrat said in his response.

According to the Minister, the agreements will be completed in time for the December 2024 deadline envisioned for completing the Gas-to-Shore project. He assured that when this is done, they will all be presented to the National Assembly.
“The respective agreements and policy documents will be presented to this honourable House when they have been agreed upon and executed. All agreements are being done in a timely manner to meet the final investment decision which will allow for the project to be completed by our committed deadline of December 2024.”
With a timetable to deliver rich gas by the end of 2024 and the Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) plant to be online by 2025, works are progressing on the project. The project will have a 25-year lifespan and is expected to employ up to 800 workers during the peak construction stage, as well as some 40 full-time workers during the operations stage, and another 50 workers during the decommissioning stage.
The Gas-to-Shore project will include a power plant and a NGL plant, all of which will be constructed within the Wales Development Zone (WDZ). When it comes to the construction of a combined cycle power plant, this will generate up to 300 megawatts (MW) of power, with a net 250MW delivered into the Guyana Power and Light grid at a sub-station located on the East Bank of the Demerara River.
The Guyana Government has already invited interested parties to make investments in the WDZ, which will be heavily industrialised and for which approximately 150 acres of land have been allocated. Those lands were previously used by the Wales Sugar Estate.
Head of the Gas-to-Shore Task Force, Winston Brassington has previously stated that ExxonMobil Guyana, which is funding the pipeline aspect of the project out of cost oil, has found that there would be substantial savings from combining these two facilities.
The scope of the approximately US$900 million Gas-to-Shore project also consists of the construction of 225 kilometres of pipeline from the Liza field in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, where Exxon and its partners are currently producing oil.
It features approximately 220 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore that will run from <<<Liza Destiny>>> and <<<Liza Unity>>> Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to the shore. Upon landing on the West Coast Demerara shore, the pipeline would continue for approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
The pipeline would be 12 inches wide, and is expected to transport per day some 50 million standard cubic feet (mscfpd) of dry gas to the NGL plant, but it has the capacity to push as much as 120 mscfpd.
The pipeline’s route onshore would follow the same path as the fibre optic cables, and will terminate at Hermitage, part of the WDZ which will house the Gas-to-Shore project. (G3)