Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo with Indian External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during his visit to New Delhi in February 2023
As Guyana builds out its energy sector, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said the country is looking to tap into the vast expertise from India, especially as it relates to building local capacity for the oil and gas sector as well as sourcing of equipment to advance renewable energy initiatives.
This will be cemented in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that is expected to be signed in the coming months. It is likely to be done in Georgetown during the upcoming visit of India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
VP Jagdeo, who recently returned home from a one week visit to New Delhi last week, disclosed that the agreement that the two governments will be signing is currently before the Indian Cabinet.
“I can’t give you a date [on the MoU signing] …it has to go to the Cabinet of India and then once it receives their approval, that would be signed,” he told reporters at a press conference on Friday.
According to the Vice President, among the many areas that the MoU will cover is the petroleum sector. He was quick to point out that no agreements have been signed with the Indian Government in this area.
“The MoU will deal with exploring the possibility of trading in crude oil, that is, sale of crude oil. But we agreed with the [Indian] Minister that this has to be beneficial to both countries and it has to follow market conditions. There is no agreement to sell any oil to India at this point in time and any such agreement in the future will have to be competitive and will have to benefit both parties,” Jagdeo clarified.
Another area the MoU will cover is exploration possibilities offshore Guyana. But according to the VP, these were only talks and no agreements were finalised. In fact, he noted that as was done with other bilateral partners, a framework agreement was discussed.
“The framework agreement will say we will cooperate in all of these areas but when you come to discussing specific initiatives – for example, if they want to buy crude – then they will make a specific offer and we will then assess that offer on its merits… And similarly, if they want to engage in a bilateral discussion on exploration and development, a specific proposal would be made and that will be [examined as well],” he stressed.
The Vice President went on to outline that the agreement will also cater for the strengthening of Guyana’s regulatory capacity and sharing of expertise to build capacity at the Ministry of Natural Resources here.
“India has enormous capacity in many areas and we hope to benefit from their expertise in strengthening the regulatory regime here for the oil and gas sector as well as building capacity in the Ministry of Natural Resources,” the Vice President noted.
On the gas front, Jagdeo said that the Government will be seeking to have consultants from India, as well as other countries, help Guyana establish a National Gas Strategy, which will determine how the country utilises the gas being discovered offshore.
Currently, United States oil major, ExxonMobil, which is already producing oil in the Stabroek Block offshore, is working on its own Gas Utilisation Plan. The Guyana Government plans to use the natural gas discovered thus far for its model gas-to-energy project that will be a power plant and Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) plant being set up at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
Meanwhile, the pending MoU between Guyana and India will also cover a number of other areas including renewable energy and in particular, cooperation in the solar energy sector.
VP Jagdeo explained that Guyana recently obtained quotations for solar units from India and it was found that the equipment there can be procured at a much cheaper cost. In fact, he pointed out that a one-megawatt unit in India could cost maybe 50 per cent less of what Government is currently paying for a similar one-megawatt unit through a competitive bidding process.
“The trip was more at a practical level to work at bringing the requisite help to many of the sectors now that we’re hoping to develop consistent with Guyana’s plan to give leadership on food security, on the environment and the energy security front,” the Vice President posited.
During his visit to India last month, Jagdeo met with several top Government officials including Minister Jaishankar, Vice President Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar and India’s President Shrimati Droupadi Murmu. (G8)
