Gas-to-Shore Project: US$30M support facility entering final construction stage

…Nismes wharf & laydown facility will provide massive opportunities – GAICO

A wharf and lay down facility that is being built in Nismes, Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), and will provide crucial support to the construction of the Gas-to-Shore Project, is close to being completed and operationalised.
The facility in question is being built by GAICO Construction. GAICO Managing Director Komal Singh, in a statement on social media, noted that they are entering the final stage of the construction of the facility which will cost approximately US$30 million.
“Region Three prepare for massive opportunities! Kudos to His Excellency and to the Government of Guyana. As we prepare for our final stage of construction at our Nismes Wharf & Laydown Yard development,” he said.
Singh also said that key stakeholders from the oil & & gas sector for the Gas-to-Energy Project (GTE) visited the facility on Friday, where they got an update on how work on the wharf and lay down facility was progressing.
The facility will primarily be used to support the Gas-to-Shore Project. It is expected that this will include providing a storage location for when the 12-inch pipeline that will be used in the project is brought in, as well as construction material and equipment. The completion of the first phase will see a laydown yard, a one-finger-pier and the wharf front at the Nismes foreshore area.
Procurement has already been started by the Government of Guyana for the Gas-to-Shore Project. With a timetable to deliver rich gas by the end of 2024 and the Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) plant to be online by 2025, works are progressing on getting the project off the ground. As such, during the first half of this year, Exxon was expected to source the materials and pipeline, so that they are available for when construction starts later this year.
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)