Pres Ali sets 2030 deadline for gas monetisation

…vows to deliver Berbice-led plan before end of term

President Dr Irfaan Ali has made it clear that Guyana’s gas monetisation plan must be implemented before the end of his term in 2031, asserting that “any option that does not allow this country to monetise gas before 2030 will not have the type of support I would like to give.” The Guyanese leader made this declaration on Tuesday as he addressed the Berbice Development Summit Agenda – an event which saw investors from around the world gather to explore how Berbice can stand at the forefront of Guyana’s next industrial and digital revolution.

President Ali said the strategy for Guyana’s gas development – touted for Berbice – must include minimal debt financing for the country but maximum foreign direct investment and private sector participation. It must also maximise local, regional and diaspora participation while optimising value, resilience, sustainability and reach, the President added. Additionally, the plan must drive innovation and support local business development, President Ali said, emphasising that it must also lead to the monetisation before 2030. “I am not willing to push monetisation beyond 2030. Constitutionally, I have an election in 2031, and I can’t run again, and I’m not leaving this decision for anyone after me… So any option that does not allow this country to monetise gas before 2030 will not have the type of support I would like to give,” President Ali asserted. While acknowledging that he is not an expert on gas, the Head of State noted that he is an attentive reader and listener. Based on the technical advice he has received, he has narrowed down several options for further pursuit. One scenario, he said, is to extract the highest possible value from every molecule of gas. “Here, gas fractions are separated and each converted into high-value export products. Methane feeds a blue ammonia-urea-methanol complex, where carbon dioxide from hydrogen production is reused in urea. Then you have a liquefied petroleum gas – propane and butane – supply a mixed feed steam cracker, a gas-powered data centre campus, which has digital export and new technology jobs,” he outlined, noting that this scenario has the highest value creation.
Scenario two is the highest employment and inclusion option. President Ali explained that “the purpose of this highest employment and inclusion scenario is to create maximum number of jobs and the broadest local participation. This scenario diversifies across several mid-scale industries within the corridor: gas powers and heats, and heat plants for fertiliser, steel using gas-based direct-reduced iron, cement and glass, alumina, agro-processing, and cold storage, and a digital hub.” Scenario three, which he outlined, uses low-cost, reliable gas energy to transform Guyana’s own raw materials into finished goods. “This is cheap and stable gas energy, drives industries that upgrade domestic resources, cement and lime from limestone, glass and ceramics from sand, alumina from bauxite, and fertiliser from methane and captured CO₂. These industries feed construction, mining, and agriculture. Power and heat are generated internally within each plant, not from a separate utility,” the President noted. Scenario four is mega-scale development. “A single gas complex would monetise every gas fraction on one site. Methane feeds blue ammonia, urea, and methanol production, mixed feed system cracker and PDH unit to produce plastics. All CO₂ is reused on site, and the complex includes its own desalination, water recycling, and export jetty. This project anchors a national petrochemical brand and attracts downstream investors,” the Head of State noted.
In this regard, the President noted that every fraction of Guyana’s gas can be transformed into high-value products and jobs. “Whether the priority is maximum export value, maximum employment, domestic transformation, or a single mega-project, each scenario builds on the same foundation,” he expressed, adding that there are several options that can be explored. “Option one, the strategic Berbice investment, is a two-gigawatt data centre, two MTPA alumina, and one MTPA gas facility. A liquid natural gas LNG plant, option two, and option three, an LNG plant and data centre. Then we have another option: a Berbice region nearshore, modular and scalable gas processing, NGL and LPG facility, physical and/or virtual pipelines, small-scale LNG to supply gas throughout the region, centralised operation, an LNG depot in Berbice serving as a logistical backbone for small-scale LNG, an ISO container distribution for future industrialisation of the region, and then a world-class, this one brings together a world-class consortium as an option. So, these are the options that are before us.”

Berbice development agenda
Meanwhile, in emphasising the importance of the Berbice development agenda, President Ali highlighted the potential it unlocks for Northern Brazil, particularly the states of Roraima and Manaus – two of the country’s fastest-growing states.
Noting that their greatest disadvantage is the journey to get goods into the Atlantic, President Ali outlined that “Guyana offers the opportunity to reduce their time to the Atlantic substantially to the point where the deep-water port in Guyana will position these two states as the most competitive states in Brazil.” Meanwhile, the outcomes of the Berbice Development Agenda Summit will feed into the upcoming Energy Conference in February 2026, at which point, the President said, a decision must be made. “…where we will be launching out the investment platform to put all of this together and to advance the work forward,” he said. The President emphasised that there is no time to be wasted. To demonstrate how serious he is about this, the Guyanese leader shared a story of how he addressed two of his Ministers who submitted a ‘nonsensical’ idea to him.
“My Minister of Finance and Minister of Public Service, Government Efficiency and Implementation came to me with an idea that I threw them out of the State House yesterday, and I asked them not to bring nonsense to me again because I have outlined a vision, the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), we’ve outlined a vision of what we want to accomplish, and we have to do it,” he noted.
The country’s gas resources are estimated at 17 trillion cubic feet (tcf).