Guyana has 3rd largest gas reserves in Latin America – analyst

…behind only Venezuela, Argentina with estimated 13.2B cubic ft of gas

Guyana, which only became an oil producer in 2019, is sitting on what is being described as the 3rd largest gas reserves in Latin America, behind only Venezuela and Argentina. This is according to Energy Co-Director at Americas Market Intelligence (AMI), Arthur Deakin.
Deakin was at the time taking part in a panel discussion organised by the Guyana Business Journal (GBJ) and Caribbean Policy Consortium, titled “Guyana Upstream: A Rystad Energy Industry And Country Benchmarking Update”.
According to Deakin, with the amount of gas potentially in the Stabroek Block, more conversations are needed on how Guyana can monetise it. He noted that based on their calculations, Guyana has some 13.2 billion cubic feet of associated gas.
“If it (associated gas) is 20 per cent of the 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent that have been discovered, that would equal, more or less by our calculations, 13.2 billion cubic feet of associated gas which would make Guyana have the third largest gas reserves in Latin America, behind Venezuela and Argentina.”
“These (infrastructure) projects have been part of the plan for many decades, but now that Guyana actually has the money, or has the money coming in, it’s really time to implement it,” Deakin said.
He recommended that Guyana look into developing a Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export terminal, but also seek to export low carbon fuels, hydrogen and natural gas. All of this is important in planning for transitioning energy demands.
“It’s important to put Guyana’s discoveries in the wider context of the energy sector and the transition that is inevitable. It seems we’re pretty much at capacity, when it comes to oil production.”
“As energy demand continues to increase, we’re going to need other types of countries and resources to come in and full that gap. Of course, renewable energy is going to be a huge part of that energy storage. Natural gas, when possible,” Deakin said.
Government has been forging ahead with the gas-to-shore project, which 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.
It will feature approximately 220 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore that will run from the Destiny and Unity Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to onshore. Upon landing on the West Coast Demerara shore, the pipeline will continue approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
The pipeline would be 12 inches and is expected to transport some 50 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of dry gas to the NGL plant but has the capacity to push as much 120 mmscfd.
The pipeline’s route onshore will follow the same path with the fibre optic cables and will terminate at Hermitage, part of the Wales Development Zone (WDZ) which will house the gas-to-shore project.
The Guyana Government has already invited interested parties to make investments in the Wales Development Zone, which will be heavily industrialised and for which approximately 150 acres of land has 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.
Hence, it was agreed that the power plant and the NGL plant be done under a combined Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) process. The aim is to deliver rich gas by the end of 2024 for the power plant while the NGL facility is slated to be online by 2025. (G3)