“No new agreements will be signed before Elections” – VP cautions on Fulcrum gas monetisation talks

Vice President (VP) Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has made it clear that no new agreements, including those with Fulcrum LNG or regarding petroleum prospecting licenses, should be signed before the upcoming 2025 Regional and General Elections, citing the importance of transparency, national consensus, and avoiding politically sensitive decisions in the pre-election period.

Fulcrum LNG, which in June 2024 emerged from among 17 other bids as the company that would develop a proposal to monetise Guyana’s gas, is currently exploring ways of doing just that in collaboration with ExxonMobil Guyana and the Government.
The company, according to the Natural Resources Ministry, had the most comprehensive and technically sound proposal from the 17 bids that were received.
However, during his weekly press conference on Thursday last, Jagdeo characterised the timing for signing a deal with Fulcrum LNG as too close to elections for major deals that carry long-term national implications.
“Like I just told you, on Fulcrum and the prospecting licence, those two things are of a policy nature. If they have not signed the licences as yet because the minister has to sign them, then I would say policy; I would say policy-wise we must not sign any before the elections, and similarly with the Fulcrum… that’s a policy matter, and so that’s my view on the policy – because it’s too near,” he explained.
Some 17 trillion cubic feet of gas has already been found in the Stabroek Block, with the Pluma and Haimara wells being proven gas fields.
Currently, the Government is pursuing its model Gas-to-Energy (GtE) Project, which is being constructed in Wales, West Bank Demerara (WBD), and will include a 300-megawatt power plant that will utilise gas from the Liza field offshore.
The excess gas is what will be used for the gas monetisation project. The award of the contract to Fulcrum is therefore part of the Government’s plans to safely and timely develop its gas resources and create an open-access infrastructure system, providing additional monetisation alternatives to upstream developers.
Meanwhile, as it relates to local content, the VP highlighted what he views as substantial local benefits from his Government’s oil and gas policies, pointing to over 1,000 Guyanese companies now benefiting from nearly US$700 million in procurement opportunities, among others.
“When you talk about the PPP tenure in office on the oil and gas sector, I want you to think about the 1,000-odd Guyanese companies – you talk to them – that have gotten now about 700 million US [dollars] of procurement opportunities that they wouldn’t have gotten if we didn’t pass that law…”
“Think about our definition of a Guyanese company and how many people have been promoted into management positions because, for their companies to register under the Local Content Act, they have to have a particular 75% of their staff… be management staff – have to be Guyanese; they would have not been promoted upwards had we not put that in the Local Content Act,” the VP said.