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Guyana has 30-50 million cubic feet of natural gas – Patterson
Government remains intent on developing the natural gas business, Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson has insisted.
Writing in response to letter writer, engineer Charles Sohan, in Kaieteur News yesterday, Patterson, however, was quick to point out that the administration is careful and will not be going the way of other countries which utilises gas flaring.
Gas flaring is critical to burn off unwanted gas but the technology has been criticised as having significant negative impact on the environment.
Neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago utilises gas flaring as is evident from huge stacks that have flames burning day and night in that Twin-Island Republic.
In clarifying a number of points raised by Sohan, the Minister who is part of the Government team of Cabinet members overseeing the developing of the oil and gas industry in Guyana disclosed that indeed the administration is exploring the commercial use and development of natural gas.
The current assessments being done are both for downstream power generation through the development of a new power generation facility- and as a medium to long-term investment opportunity.
“The latter is foreseen to be realised through the design and mapping of an industrial park in close proximity to this power generation facility,” Patterson said in his letter yesterday.
He emphasised that these considerations are not based on a sole conceptual vision for the use of our resources.
“…Rather, the Government of Guyana has been engaged in a number of studies directed towards the feasibility of bringing a pipeline onshore by assessing costs, economics, and implications of this proposal, including, but not limited to, an analysis of the composition of the associated gas.”
The official reiterated that Government envisions that any venture will have to complement the use of renewable energy as well as to strengthen the security of supply.
“Accordingly, data that have been presented to the Government have already been evaluated. As such, the Government continues to explore this developmental opportunity through continued discussions and completion of ongoing studies in assessing the future use of this clean energy source, with the Inter-American Development Bank and other entities.”
Patterson said that in exploring the use of this associated gas, the Government has remained cognizant of its own environmental priorities.
An example of gas flaring in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago.
Minister David Patterson
“Accordingly, I wish to reiterate that Guyana will not make use of gas flaring.”
With regards to the amount of natural gas in the offshore concession that US-owned ExxonMobil and its partners will start oil production in another two years time, Minister Patterson disclosed that it is estimated that the natural gas to be produced daily is between 30-50M cubic feet
“At this time, the Government remains focused on continuing developmental work based on a specific location for the landing of the pipeline and endorses creation of investment opportunities that are in good faith, underscored by our principles of national sovereignty over the use of our resources.”
Research states that Russia and Nigeria as the two largest emitters of flare gas, with the United States a rapidly expanding newcomer to the club.
According to www.resilience.org, in an ideal world this associated gas would be sold to consumers or it would be used to generate power and then resold as electricity.
“But this requires costly investment into pipelines, power plants, and other infrastructure. Therefore, in practice, some oil producers opt to sell the oil and burn the gas. This is known as gas flaring. Every year, approximately 140-150 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas is flared into the atmosphere.
According to calculations by the World Bank, that’s equivalent to three quarters of Russia’s gas exports, or almost one third of the European Union’s gas consumption.”
ExxonMobil and its partners are estimating about three billion barrels of oil in the offshore concession located about 100 miles from the shores of Guyana.
With examples of best practices and harsh lessons to be learnt from other oil producing countries, the scrutiny on the current oil and gas development process have seen numerous questions raised for the current administration which is now venturing into uncharted waters.
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