Guyanese firm among 10 bidders in race for Guyana’s LPG bottling plant

At least one Guyanese company is among 10 regional and international firms that have submitted proposals to design, build and operate a cooking gas bottling facility in Guyana. The National Procurement and Tender Administration (NPTA) on Thursday opened the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) proposals. Among the EPC plans received was one from GuyGas, in a joint venture with Makeen Energy out of Denmark and the Indian-headquartered Ramco Industries. GuyGas Inc is a 100 per cent Guyanese-owned family business located at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara (EBD). According to its website, it is the only Guyanese company in the country that bottles and distributes cooking gas, or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Other local operators, Trinidad-based Massy Gas Products, Sol Guyana Inc – part of the Sol Group, which is the leading supplier of petroleum-based products in the Caribbean, and French-owned Rubis Guyana Inc were also among the bidders. United States (US)-based Lindsayca Inc is also interested in the gas bottling project. The Houston, Texas-headquartered company is currently building the highly anticipated Gas-to-Energy (GtE) Project in Guyana that will see a 300-megawatt (MW) combined cycle power plant and Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility coming on stream later this year. Proposals were also received from Indian-based Divyan International Inc. (Guyana); Gas Zipa SASESP (Columbia): JV Fix It Depot and Standard Energy Company; Gate Ventures and Consulting Guyana Inc in consortium with Propak Systems Ltd (Canada) and Makeen Energy (Denmark); ILF Consulting Engineering Inc India in collaboration with MAHAPREIT (Mahatma Phule Renewable and Infrastructure Technology Limited); and BB Energy (BBE) and Dec Ogeco (Ogeco) (Singapore).

Based on EPC document, the proposed Guyana Gas Bottling and Logistics Company (GGBL), a company to be incorporated under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, will bottle, transport, and distribute cooking gas for domestic use.
The objective of GGBL is to lower the price of domestic cooking gas.
Through the GtE Project, the Guyana Government is looking to significantly lower the price of cooking gas by piping natural gas from offshore operations to the Wales, West Bank Demerara, site where the NGL facility and power plant are currently under construction and will utilize the rich gas from ongoing oil operations in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana.
250 kilometres of 12-inch pipelines
Already, some 250 kilometres of 12-inch pipelines have been laid to bring the gas onshore. However, only 40 per cent of the pipeline’s capacity will be used by the GtE Project to gas up the power plant and NGL facility, bringing 50 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of dry gas.
With the pipelines having the capacity to push as much as 120 mmscfd of gas, the Government is 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 additional gas onshore.
The GtE Phase Two will see the construction of another 300-MW power plant and NGL facility at the Wales site, using only 20 mmcfd. With the remaining natural gas available, the Government is planning to set up two major industrial projects – a gas bottling plant and a fertilizer manufacturing plant at the Wales site
The gas bottling project will be located east of the GtE Project, and it will receive the cooking gas from Guyana Power and Gas Inc (GPGI) – a fully-owned Government of Guyana company, at wholesale prices.
63M gallons cooking gas per annum
Lead of the Gas-to-Energy Project, Winston Brassington, told delegates at the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo on Thursday that approximately 63 million gallons of cooking gas per annum will be produced.
“The amount of cooking gas liquids we will produce, the retail value today is worth a quarter billion US (United States Dollar). The 4,000 barrels per day (bpd) that will be produced, that is, 63 million gallons…the market value of all that we will produce is worth over a quarter of a billion US,” he stated.
According to Brassington, when the pipeline reaches capacity and its fully optimized, that 4,000 bpd of cooking gas will more than double to some 10,000 bpd, comparable to Trinidad’s gas production. This, he pointed out, will open up export opportunities.
“We only use in Guyana, right now, about 1,000 bpd of liquids, of cooking gas, so the rest of that will be available for new industries, for export – going down to Northern Brazil and other parts of the Caribbean,”
Back in July, President Dr Irfaan Ali had stated that they are targeting to bring down the cost of cooking gas as low as $1000 per cylinder. At present, the cost of a 20-gallon cylinder cooking gas averages between $4,500 to $5,000.
The gas bottling plant, along with the Guyana Ammonia and Urea Plant, are set to come onstream when the Phase Two of the Gas-to-Energy project is operationalised in 2030.
Only last month, Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, who’s office has responsibilities for the country’s energy sector, noted that investments in these two projects will be central to bringing down costs in Guyana, especially food prices.

Pic saved as: gas bottling bids