…Govt seeking consultants to manage NGL, power plant construction
True to their word, the Government has gone out to tender to seek consultancy firms to submit proposals for the management of the construction of the integrated Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) plant and the 300 MW power plant, all part of the gas-to-shore project.
Preliminary artist’s impression of natural gas plant (Source: EEPGL)
According to the tender, the Natural Resources Ministry is seeking a consultant who will assist the Government, represented by the Gas-to-Energy Taskforce, in designing, reviewing and supervising the construction of the project.
The consultant will also be expected to assist in the “general project management of the development of the integrated plants and contract administration throughout the project implementation process and thereafter during the defects liability period,” the Ministry explained.
The project will have an estimated duration of 42 calendar months from the date of the contract signing, with at least a 12-month defects liability period. Bidders will be required to submit a combined technical and financial proposal, by August 30, 2022.
During a press conference last month, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had revealed that the tender for the project manager would go out in a matter of weeks. Jagdeo had freely admitted that they do not possess the capacity to manage the implementation of such a project.
“We are going out to tender, in a matter of weeks, for an international project management group that will manage the contract on our behalf. To see that the quality is maintained and it comes in on budget and on time.”
“Because we don’t have that capability. Even at GPL, we had to get a foreign company to advise us. It’s a combined cycle, steam and power plant and stuff. Which is more stable. So, we’ll go out (thereafter) for the project management team to oversee this project on our behalf,” he had said.
The gas-to-shore project, which nine companies have already been prequalified to construct, will see the establishment of a gas processing plant (GPP) and an NGL facility. This will be capable of producing at least 4000 barrels per day, including the separating of liquefied petroleum gas.
The other component of the project is the construction of a combined cycle power plant that will generate up to 300 megawatts (MW) of power with a net 250 MW delivered into the Guyana Power and Light grid at a sub-station located on the East Bank of the Demerara River.
The scope of the US$900 million gas-to-shore project also 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 was originally expected that preparation of the NGL plant site would commence in August of this year. The entire construction process will take some three years hence rich gas is expected to be delivered onshore by the end of 2024, and the NGL plant to be operational by mid-2025.
Head of the Gas-to-Shore Taskforce, Winston Brassington had previously explained that ExxonMobil Guyana, which is funding the pipeline aspect of the project out of cost oil, had found that there will be substantial savings from combining these two facilities. Hence, it was agreed that the power plant and the NGL plant will be done as a combined Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) process.
The gas-to-shore project, which has a 25-year lifespan, 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 features approximately 220 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore that will run from the Destiny and 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 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 with the fibre optic cables and will terminate at Hermitage, part of the Wales Development Zone (WDZ) which will house the gas-to-shore project.
The Guyana Government has 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. (G3)
