Monetising gas is next wave of opportunity for Guyana – VP Jagdeo

– says Guyana has huge potential to become a gas producer

The monetisation of Guyana’s vast gas reserves has been described by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo as the next wave of economic opportunity for Guyana, seeing as the country has some 17 trillion cubic feet of associated gas.
During a recent interview with S&P Global, Jagdeo noted that the conversation has moved from ExxonMobil wanting to reinject the gas they found in the Stabroek Block, to Exxon helping Guyana to develop it.
This partnership has stretched to the gas-to-energy project, where ExxonMobil is funding the pipeline and associated infrastructure.
“We’re in a discussion with Exxon now. We have 17 trillion cubic feet of associated gas. So, a lot of associated gas. And they were saying that they need to reinject this gas to keep the quality of the wells up. We’re having a different conversation now, to move to monetise this gas.”
So, they’re doing some studies and we’re also getting some external help to do a gas strategy. But we believe that the next wave, once we set this firmly on track, the production is already escalating. We get out of the bid round. We’ll start tackling that issue in earnest,” the Guyanese Vice President posited.
According to Jagdeo, they will also focus their energy on developing the gas strategy, which will lay out how to utilise the gas resources. Because, as he put it, “Guyana has huge potential for becoming a gas producer.”
In Budget 2023, the gas-to-energy project received a $43.3 billion allocation. This allocation is in addition to the $24.6 billion injected into the start-up of the transformational project, which includes the construction of an integrated Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) plant and the 300-megawatt (MW) combined cycle power plant at Wales, WBD.
The NGL and 300 MW power plant components of the Gas-to-Shore Project are meanwhile expected to cost US$759.8 million and will be financed through sources that include budgets and loan financing.
The scope of Guyana’s gas-to-energy project consists of the construction of 225 kilometres of pipeline from the Liza field in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, where Exxon and its partners are currently producing oil. It features approximately 200 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore that will run from Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to the shore.
Upon landing on the West Coast Demerara shore, the pipeline would continue for approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara. The pipeline would be 12 inches wide, and is expected to transport per day some 50 million standard cubic feet (mscfpd) of dry gas to the NGL plant, but it has the capacity to push as much as 120 mscfpd.
The pipeline’s route onshore would follow the same path as the fibre optic cables, and will terminate at Hermitage, part of the Wales Development Zone (WDZ) which will house the Gas-to-Shore Project.
A sum of US$55 million per annum will be paid to ExxonMobil in amortisation costs for the pipelines to be installed in the gas-to energy project, which will allow Guyana to, in turn, save and earn ten times that amount.
Gas-to-Energy Project Head Winston Brassington in a presentation during the Guyana Energy Conference and Expo, had explained that the $55 million to be paid to ExxonMobil annually would allow the oil major to recover the US$1 billion spent on the pipelines.
Guyana has meanwhile been receiving assistance from international sources that include Qatar, when it comes to the formulation of a plan to utilise and monetise the gas supply it will get when the Gas-to-energy project comes online.