…must retain competitive edge in the oil and gas sector – Senior Petroleum Coordinator
With the highly anticipated US$1.7 billion Gas-to-Energy (GtE) project nearing its completion date, which is expected to be by the fourth quarter of 2025, the Guyana Government is currently working to secure investors to assist in the maintenance of the project’s Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) plant.
Ministry of Natural Resources’ Senior Petroleum Coordinator, Bobby Gossai
This was revealed by Senior Petroleum Coordinator at the Natural Resource Ministry, Bobby Gossai, last Friday during the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) press conference on the upcoming Offshore Technology Conference (OTC).
The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is a series of conferences and exhibitions focused on the exchanging of technical knowledge relevant to the development of offshore energy resources, primarily oil and natural gas. The flagship event is held annually during early May in Houston, Texas, USA since 1969.
Gossai revealed that in order for Guyana to remain competitive in the oil and gas sector, local business who attend the OTC must seek to secure partnerships and investments that will see new skills and technologies being brought into the country.
“What we want to see over time, and this is part of the initiative of bringing our audience here – when I say our audience, I mean the membership of the GCCI and every local business in particular – to find those technologies that we don’t have here, that we can serve as our oil and gas sector… We have been doing this for the last three years, but we have to maintain our competitive edge in the oil and gas sector.”
With the Gas to Energy (GtE) project being one of the major transformational projects with Guyana’s oil and gas sector, Gossai highlighted that the Government will focus on securing additional investments for the project.
He explained that there is room for capacity building, particularly in the area of maintenance, a field which he noted the government is actively working to secure investments in for the project.
“The development of the Gas to Energy (GtE) project, there’re a host of opportunities there that we need to build capacity in the country, even at a government level; we’re looking at opportunities for maintenance opportunities to engage in working in this type of industries, and plants that are being established now – and especially to have the ability to supply the type of services and goods that a power plant of that nature will need.”
Gossai added, “As you would know right now, we have RFPs [Requests for proposals] out for operating and maintenance of the phase one of the NGL plant– and it’s not just about that service of having personnel, but as I said, you need to have that equipment; you need to have parts in place, you need to have systems in place that are monitoring these activities 24 hours a day. So, I’m going to use that as a simple example that we have there. But we are also looking at more opportunities within the current oil and gas development that is happening here.”
Gas-to-Energy project
The scope of Guyana’s GtE 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 would run from Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block, to the shore.
Upon reaching the West Coast Demerara (WCD) shore, the pipeline would continue for approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara (WBD).
In last year’s national budget, the project received a $43.3 billion allocation in addition to the $24.6 billion injected into the start-up of the transformational project.
The Guyana Government has envisioned the startup of the GtE Project by 2025, thus realising its commitment to deliver cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable energy to the population.
There is also a planned phase two of the GtE Project. It was only in September 2024 that the Government invited interested companies to submit proposals for a second power plant and NGL facility at Wales, WBD, – the project site for the current GtE Project.
It is expected that of the 250 kilometres of 12-inch pipelines that will bring the gas onshore, only 40 percent of the pipeline’s capacity will be used in Phase One to gas up the first power plant and NGL facility at Wales, bringing 50 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of dry gas onshore.
It was announced in April 2023 that Guyana had applied for the loan from the US EXIM Bank to finance the US$761 million GtE Project, which includes the construction of an integrated NGL plant and a 300-megawatt (MW) combined cycle power plant at Wales, WBD, utilising natural gas from the country’s offshore operations in the Stabroek Block.
Subsequently, some US$526M of the loan applied for to the EXIM Bank was approved. Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had pointed out that the EXIM bank, in its press statement, referred to the GtE Project as a transition to more reliable, clean energy.
