Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has announced that the Government is moving ahead with a comprehensive national gas strategy, with the aim of exploring ways to monetise its gas reserves.
“We’re moving ahead on the gas strategy because that is a promise [we made that] once we get past the [Petroleum Activities] legislation and could actualise the bid round [for the oil blocks offshore], we will move to the gas strategy,” Jagdeo disclosed during a press conference on Thursday.
According to the Vice President, Government will be exploring the market with the aim of monetising excess gas reserves from offshore activities.
“So, we started now activating that and we’ve started looking… [to] see what interest there is in the market because if we await just Exxon moving at its own pace – this might not be a priority project for them but for us monetising the gas reserves, probably building a petrochemical industry, maybe LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) that could yield significant value to Guyana… so we’re turning our attention to those issues also,” he stated.
In the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, United States oil-giant ExxonMobil and its co-venturers have found some 17 trillion cubic feet of gas; that is about a quarter of the 11 billion barrels of oil-equivalent. The Pluma and Haimara discoveries are proven gas fields.
Currently, the Ali-led People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration is pursuing its model gas-to-energy 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).
The multibillion-dollar transformational project will see gas being piped from the Liza Field in the Stabroek Block to onshore at Wales via pipelines that will be procured, installed, and operated by Exxon to the tune of US$1 billion.
Based on studies conducted, ExxonMobil would be able to produce up to 50 million cubic feet of gas per day for this initiative without impacting oil production activities offshore.
Currently, Exxon reinjects the gas in order to maintain the pressure of producing oil wells.
The Guyana Government has already declared its intention to monetise its largely untapped gas resources found offshore, which it said would help to open up new opportunities for trade and energy security between Guyana and its bilateral partners.
The National Gas Strategy, which is expected to be done later this year, will guide the best way possible to do this. It will examine, among other things, the type of gas found, the economics of getting it out, the market, and also verifying whether anything else can replace the gas to maintain the reservoirs.
Government has already requested Exxon to prepare a utilisation plan this year for developing its gas discoveries.
The US oil giant had previously said that significant discoveries were made further to the south-east towards the Suriname border, where there is a higher gas content in the fields that they have developed so far.
With significant gas discoveries also made offshore the Dutch-speaking nation – in Block 58 off the coast of Suriname, the Guyana Government believes there is greater possibility for the two South American neighbours to pool resources for a joint gas development.
President Dr Irfaan Ali has already been talking with his counterparts about establishing an energy corridor between Guyana and its two surrounding neighbours, Suriname and Brazil. In fact, the three nations have already held several discussions on combining their ability to create an energy corridor and unlock the potential for a series of manufacturing and industrial development.
However, while Brazil is already an established oil producer and Guyana is nearly four-years into producing oil, Suriname is not expected to have first oil production until 2027. Hence harnessing its gas resources would not be possible until then.
During Thursday’s press conference, VP Jagdeo made it clear that Guyana’s rapid progress will be stymied.
“We’ve had talks about common infrastructure for joint exploration and joint development if it makes the project more viable. But we’re not going to be constrained by the pace at which another country operates. But along the road, if we have commonality and they move at the same pace – because you know we don’t need to be shy about the pace at which we’re moving… we will explore with any country,” the Vice President declared. (G8)
