GtE Project to use gas from Hammerhead Project

– pipeline to be filled with over 120 million cubic feet per day

Approximately 120 million cubic feet per day (mcf/d) of natural gas will be piped from offshore operations in the Stabroek Block to the site of the Gas-to-Energy (GtE) Project at Wales, West Bank Demerara, following plans now to utilise the rich gas from the Hammerhead Project – ExxonMobil’s seventh offshore development in Guyana.
Early last week, the Guyana Government granted approval for the US$6.8 billion Hammerhead project which will include 18 production and injection wells. This latest development of the United States-based oil major is set to come online in 2029, utilising a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel with a capacity to produce approximately 150,000 barrels of oil per day.

However, in addition to its oil resources, the Hammerhead field also has bountiful gas resources. In fact, the project can produce as much as 95 million cubic feet per day of gas but only about 10 million of these will be needed to fuel the FPSO.
According to Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat, the remaining gas will be piped onshore for the GtE project, which comprised a 300-megawatt (MW) Combined Cycle Power Plant and a Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility.
“Hammerhead field actually has a lot more gas than the other fields. And we have been told by Exxon, confirmed by our technical teams, that unlike the other developments, they will not use the gas to re-inject in order to optimise production, like they do in the other fields.

“The Liza 1 and Liza 2 [offshore projects] will not be able to fill that pipeline, and that is why Hammerhead is so critical and important because rather than re-injecting the gas to optimise production, that gas now would go to the Unity and Destiny FPSOs, and then through that pipeline, [from] offshore to the Wales Development Area,” Bharrat explained during an appearance on the Starting Point podcast, which aired on Sunday.
As part of the GtE project, ExxonMobil – the operator of the oil-rich Stabroek Block – has already laid the 250 kilometres of 12-inch pipelines that will bring the gas onshore. However, only 40 per cent of the pipeline’s capacity will be used to gas up the current power plant and NGL facility at Wales, bringing 50 million cubic feet per day of dry gas onshore.
But with the pipelines having the capacity to push as much as 130 mcf/d of gas, Government is now moving ahead with Phase Two of the Gas-to-Energy project that will utilise the remaining 60 per cent capacity of the pipeline to bring an additional gas onshore for a second power plant and NGL facility at the Wales project site.
“Hammerhead now will help us to fill that Wales pipeline…because that gas is guaranteed right now… 50 million cubic per day is already available, which is enough for the first power plant and which will come on stream in a couple months from now. And then with Hammerhead being tied into that, it is guaranteed now that we will full that pipeline with over 120 million cubic per day, which will now accommodate a second power plant, another 300 megawatts of power,” the Natural Resources Minister stated.
Meanwhile, the additional gas from the Hammerhead field will also be used to for a small fertiliser plant at the Wales Development Site, which will be developed into a massive industrial zone.
With 600 megawatts of power to come onstream, Minister Bharrat says this will be a game-changer for economic activities across Guyana providing cleaner and cheaper electricity.
The GtE Project is expected to reduce the country’s high electricity prices, which is a hindrance to large-scale industrial operations, by 50 per cent when the first power plant comes onstream, likely by mid-next year.
Over the past few years, Guyana has been undergoing unprecedented development which has seen the demand for power at peak hours more than doubling from just over 100 megawatts in 2020 to now over 250 megawatts.
According to Bharrat during the podcast, “That is the increase in demand over such a short period of time, and that translates to the development that is taking place in the country… That Gas-to-Energy project will be the single most transformational project in the history of our country because that project is going to touch every single Guyanese in some way or the other.”