Energy projects must not be at the expense of citizens’ livelihoods

Feb 21, 2022 News

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– Ghanian President tells Energy Conference

Kaieteur News – “To ensure energy sustainability, it is critical that we balance carefully social, economic and environmental benefits in a continuously changing world. No energy project therefore, no matter how high its return on value is worth it if the interest or some or majority of the stakeholders are not properly represented and they are left impoverished and dissatisfied.”
This is according to the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Guyana’s mentor on its newly found oil resources. The Head of State made these remarks as he kicked off the inaugural International Energy Conference and Expo, which was hosted at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown between February 15 and 18, under the theme ‘Charting a Sustainable Energy Future’.
The President told a packed conference room, while delivering opening remarks, that specific measures must be taken to mitigate such dreaded trends, resulting from poor management of the oil and gas sector. Ghana, a west-African country, with a wealth of experience in the oil industry, given over 10 years in oil production, has been mentoring Guyana as the country progresses with its oil and gas production.

To this end, the Ghanian Head of State has urged that Guyana pay keen attention to its agriculture sector, with the aim of avoiding an impoverished nation.
The President stressed the importance of withstanding climate change even as he expounded on solemn duties, countries like Guyana have in taking concrete steps to protect the environment from climate change.
According to him, “We have till 2030 to stop climate change and this requires us to deal with climate change more aggressively than we have in the past.”
Of equal importance, the Ghanian official also encouraged that ambitious environmental and resource management policies be pursued, which must be based on goals of making the sector sustainable he said.
During the conference, other key speakers also warned Guyana of the importance of ensuring its energy projects are affordable.
For instance, Mr. John Ingham, the Regional Product Director for General Electric (GE), an American multinational conglomerate, which is a world energy leader, cautioned the country that if future energy projects are not affordable, they would fail.
He told participants during the conference, in the presence of several international stakeholders on Thursday, “Nobody is green when you are red. So if you are losing money, you are not going to be green. It doesn’t matter if you go to very sustainable projects, if not affordable, they will fail. They have to be affordable.”
The warnings to Guyana come at a time when the People’s Progressive Party/C (PPP/C) government is forging ahead with its gas-to-shore project, for example, that now carries a price tag in excess of US$1.3 billion.
The Minister with responsibility for Finance in the Office of the President, Dr. Ashni Singh, in his Budget 2022 presentation confirmed that government has already allocated in excess of US$20M towards the project.
A perusal of the project profile for the capital allocation that falls under the Office of the Prime Minister, points out that the government has in fact pegged the total cost for the power plant and other facilities at some US$520M, of which US$20M has been allocated for use this year.
With ExxonMobil spending in excess of US$800M to conduct surveys and other ancillary works for the project, including the laying of the pipeline, it would mean that the total cost of the project is now pegged in excess of $1.3B. The project is intended to add some 300MW of power to the national grid.
On the other hand, the government is also pushing its Amaila Falls Hydropower Project pegged at US$700 million and which will generate 165MW of power.
On Friday, the former Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson argued that the Wales gas-to-shore project will amount to a white elephant as it has now been confirmed that the 50mcf of gas piped to shore will only be sufficient to power the generating sets and a small LPG plant rather than be used for fertiliser (Ammonia, Urea and other agro-processing byproducts), solid waste pyrolysis and even a cement plant as was assured by the PPP/C government.
He reasoned, “Guyana will be expending over US$1.4B and counting (Exxon–US$900M + GOG US$504M) for 250MW generating sets.
This is an incredible amount, considering the fact that the current cost for 1MW of generating power is approximately US$1M. That’s correct; 250MW of natural gas-powered generating sets can be procured for approximately US$250M – yet, the Government is paying US$1.4B.”

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