Liza Phase One alone can give Guyana four times the cooking gas it consumes daily - Patterson

Liza Phase One alone can give Guyana four times the cooking gas it consumes daily – Patterson

Jan 06, 2020 News

By Kiana Wilburg

Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson

Much has been said in the media and other quarters about Guyana’s oil reserves and the revenue that it could generate with prudent management. But if the same consideration is given to Guyana’s gas potential, Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson says that Guyanese would realize that it is just as significant as the petroleum discoveries.
During an exclusive interview with Kaieteur News, Minister Patterson reminded that ExxonMobil is capable of providing 30 to 50 million cubic feet of natural gas from the Liza Phase One Project alone for electricity generation. The Minister was keen to note that while this is enough to power the entire country for over 15 years, it is also enough to provide Guyana with four times the quantity of cooking gas that is used per day.
Minister Patterson said, “The gas available is enough to give you about 200 megawatts of power, which is more than the Guyana Power and Light is providing. Upon learning this, we started looking at possibility of producing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)…An initial assessment showed that the quantity available is enough to provide us with four times our daily consumption of cooking gas.”
The government official noted that the country uses approximately 20,000 barrels equivalent per day of cooking gas. He said that while exporting this quantity is not commercially viable, it is certainly enough for domestic use.
Minister Patterson said that assessments of what can be done with the gas are still ongoing. He noted as well that the Ministry had initially envisioned putting an industrial park to facilitate the plans for LPG at a 475 acre plot of land at Woodlands on the East Coast, but this plan has not been finalized.
“We had done a multi-stakeholder study and that was one of the sites identified, but there are some challenges and they are being looked at. No site has been chosen at the moment.”
Kaieteur News understands that the Energy Department is now in charge of handling these and other related matters. Last year, the Energy Department had disclosed that gas can be brought to shore by 2023-2024.
Furthermore, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which is acutely aware of Guyana’s gas potential has said that currently, Guyana is at a historic juncture to convert its abundant natural resources into a diversified electricity generation matrix.
Along with the Stabroek oil discoveries, it noted that ExxonMobil and its partners have found commercial quantities of Natural Gas associated with the oil deposits.
Together with Renewable Energy (RE) sources, the financial institution said that this could transform the electricity generation sector. It stressed that the use of Natural gas could help to lower carbon emissions and represent cost savings, benefitting residential, commercial, and industrial consumers.