Guyana’s recoverable gas estimated at over 17 trillion cubic feet

…2nd largest holder of natural gas reserves in region

The recently-released Finance Ministry’s Mid-Year Report has put Guyana’s estimated recoverable natural gas reserves at over 17 trillion cubic feet, making the country one of the biggest holders of natural gas reserves in the Region.
According to the report, the current estimate for Guyana’s natural gas reserves is over 17 trillion standard cubic feet. This estimate would put Guyana ahead of Argentina, which is estimated to have 13.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. According to the International Trade Administration, natural gas represents 52 per cent of Argentina’s primary energy source.
It would mean that neighbouring Venezuela, with its approximately 200 trillion cubic feet in proven natural gas reserves, is the only country ahead of Guyana on the continent in terms of natural gas reserves.
The report also contains details on how Guyana plans to go about developing its natural gas potential. It was pointed out that under the Yellowtail Petroleum Production Licence, the licensee will have to do a gas utilisation study to determine how to make the best use of these gas reserves.
“The Liza Phase projects will be exporting a total of 50 million standard cubic feet of gas per day through a 12-inch pipeline that will run for 225 kilometres from the two offshore fields. This gas will be utilised at the Integrated Gas Fired Power Plant and Natural Gas Liquids in the Wales Development Zone.
“These facilities will provide low-cost, reliable and cleaner power for Guyana, as well as enable the advancement of heavy manufacturing and industrialisation in our economy,” the report goes on to explain, referencing the gas-to-shore project.
The gas-to-shore project, which is currently in the pipelines, 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 Liza Destiny and Liza 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 Natural Gas Liquid (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 as the fibreoptic cables and will terminate at Hermitage, part of the Wales Development Zone, 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 would 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.
An in-depth review is meanwhile expected to be conducted on the gas supply agreement from oil giant ExxonMobil for the gas-to-shore project, with the Government going out to tender for a consultant to conduct the review and provide legal and commercial advisory services.
In a recently-published Request for Proposals (RFP), the Natural Resources Ministry invited companies to submit proposals for providing advisory services to the Government for the gas-to-shore project.
Government has also gone out to tender for a company to manage the construction phase of the integrated NGL plant and the 300-megawatt power plant, all part of the gas-to-shore project. (G3)