T&T expert warns Govt. to determine sustainability of industry first

Apr 01, 2021 News

As gas-to-shore project’s price tag balloons…

Former T&T Energy Minister, Kevin Ramnarine.

Kaieteur News – Guyana is being sold a gas-to-shore project by its administration but revelations are illustrating an increasing price tag.
Former Trinidad and Tobago Minister of Energy, Kevin Ramnarine, in a recent discussion on the project disclosed that the pipeline alone will cost the country some US$800M but “the more important facility would be the facility which is to condition the gas or to fractionate the gas.”
This, in essence refers to a refinery type facility to separate the associated gases which would land onshore—a fraction of which would be used to supply Guyana with an oversupply of electricity.
Ramnarine, during the gas to shore discussion hosted by OilNOW’s Chris Chapwanya, said that the Guyana government, before forging ahead with the project, needs to determine, “what is the best way to develop industries that are sustainable and that could create jobs and so on.”
The associated gas to be landed onshore Guyana by 2024 would initially be at some 50 million cubic feet of gas daily.
According to Ramnarine, it must be realised that a facility will have to be set up to separate the methane, “and ethane and propane and so on; more than likely, a power plant would need methane which is the simplest of the hydrocarbons. So the power plant gets what they call C1 and C2, which is methane and ethane.”
He explained that “everything else, which is C3+” which is essentially butane is also used as a propellant.
He spoke too about the need to consider propane commonly referred to as Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
Other gases that would be obtained and separated—at a conditioning facility that will have to be built before anything can be done with any of the gases—includes “pentane and hexane and so on.”
Receiving Infrastructure
He posited that these too are valuable liquids. “That has value from the point of view of supplying Guyana with cooking gas (one) and supplying Guyana with cooking gas at a lower cost than it is currently being supplied because you would be importing your cooking gas right now from somewhere.”
Landing gas to shore, according to the former Energy Minister, will also have to take into account the need to construct the basic ‘receiving infrastructure’ for the gas.
This, he noted, is also in addition to the conditioning facility that will fractionate the gas and pointed to what is referred to in the industry as a “slug catcher”.
While speculating on the uncertainty of this facility for associated gases coming from Guyana’s offshore fields using pipelines, Ramnarine did point out that the piece of infrastructure is used as a type of valve to regulate the incoming flow of gas.
He explained saying, the purpose of the slug catcher is to smoothen out the flow of gas as the gas approaches the shoreline.
“Because the gas can be coming in, what they call two-phase flow which is where you have slugs of liquid and gas; so the purpose of the slug catcher is to smoothen out that or else you’re going to have uneven type of flow.”
Ramnarine pointed out that this would have to be installed ahead of the plant that will separate the varying gases emanating from the pipeline.
Expanding on his position during the webinar, the former Energy Minister was adamant that ExxonMobil at present has very few options for natural gas offshore.
He noted too that, “increasingly, as the decade progresses, I think more gas will be making its ways to the coastline. And therefore the question arises, you know; what is the best way to develop industries that are sustainable, and that could create jobs and so on.”
Speaking to potential uses for the massive quantities of gas that could land onshore Guyana, along with their accompanying infrastructure, Ramnarine pointed to liquefied gas for mining and companies such as Demerara Distillers Limited, which already imports small amounts of LNG.
National Security
Outlining additional expenditure that would be required for a gas to shore initiative, the former T&T Energy Minister noted that among the main concerns with the utilisation of gas from the oil and gas fields.
“I think there are some concerns about the pipeline, and about the pipeline approach to the shoreline if possible,” he conceded.
Ramnarine qualified his position by outlining “…of course the pipeline has to make landfall somewhere and that somewhere is going to be the West Bank or the West Coast,” as he spoke to the need for capacity building at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Additionally, in outlining some of the associated inherent cost that would be attached to landing from the Liza Field, Ramnarine pointed to the need for an effective regulator which he speculated would come under Guyana’s Petroleum Management Unit.
The Former Energy Minister outlined too that the sector, if relied on to supply electricity will also become a matter of national security for the country.
“So, I just want to give the Trinidadian experience here. Therefore, given that all electricity in Trinidad comes from natural gas, it means therefore that the natural gas industry in Trinidad and Tobago is not only an economic priority, it’s also a national security priority. So that is al

so one of the reasons why the Minster of Energy in Trinidad, sits on the National Security Council.”
He posited, “he is not there to give his opinion about bandits and criminals breaking in; he is there because of the strategic value of gas infrastructure and energy infrastructure.” Ramnarine also pointed to the fact that in that country the army would have to be employed to patrol the oil and gas pipelines.
He suggested this activity by the military is “part of the regulatory oversight of natural gas infrastructure too,” underscoring the “security of those assets.
According to Ramnarine, “increasingly, that is going to become an issue for Guyana, the security of energy infrastructure because as the energy infrastructure grows, you will always have the risk of people who may want to interfere. That is a very big issue in Nigeria.