US EXIM board approval for GTE loan imminent – Finance Minister

…says technical team meeting weekly with EXIM counterparts

Approval from the United States (US) Export Import (EXIM) Bank board for the loan that Guyana is seeking for the Gas to Energy (GtE) project is imminent. This update was provided by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh.
Back in April 2023, it was announced that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government had applied for a loan from the US EXIM Bank to finance the US$761 million GtE Project.
In an exclusive interview with this publication, Dr. Singh explained that the process towards getting approval from the EXIM Bank board is progressing well. As a matter of fact, the Finance Minister was confident that approval from the US EXIM Bank board for the loan is expected very shortly.
“It’s progressing very well. I’ve had multiple meetings with them myself, and we have a technical team that meets with their counterparts in EXIM on a weekly basis. They meet every week. They update myself and the senior leadership of the government, the President and Vice President in particular, on a regular basis,” Singh said.
“So, the discussions have gone very well. And we anticipate very soon that we’ll be going to the board and we will have board approval. So, it’s looking very positive. And there’s every likelihood that we will have board approval very shortly for that project,” the Finance Minister explained.
Back in April 2023, it was announced that the Guyana Government 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 Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) Plant and a 300-megawatt (MW) combined cycle power plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara (WBD), utilizing natural gas from the country’s offshore operations in the Stabroek Block.
As part of its internal due diligence process, the US EXIM Bank had hired two consultants to do a technical assessment of the project. These assessments were done during site visits over the past year, and President Dr. Irfaan Ali had previously revealed that the feedback from those two assessments was positive.
In September 2024, the Finance Minister had met with senior officials of the US EXIM Bank in Washington DC, during which discussions were held on the loan. And Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had said at the time that after the bank makes a submission on the project to its board, this would be followed by a 35-day notification, after which it returns to the board.
However, even as Guyana awaits the approval of this loan, Government has already made it clear that it would continue to provide funding so that any delayed funding does not hamper the project. Already, Government has spent more than US$400 million on the highly anticipated project.
Meanwhile, there have been local and international lobbying efforts to block the funding for the GtE Project by the US EXIM Bank. Earlier in June, it was reported that Friends of the Earth United States, an NGO with over 16,000 members, wrote Chairman of the US EXIM Bank, Reta Jo Lewis, demanding that the institution does not fund the GtE Project.
However, these efforts have been dismissed by the Guyana Government, and even the local private sector had written the US financial institution to declare their support for the transformative GtE Project, which would not only provide cleaner energy, but also cut the country’s high electricity costs by half.
Nevertheless, while Guyana awaits funding from the US EXIM Bank, construction works on the project continue, with Government expecting the power plant to come on stream in the first half of next year. (G3)