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Construction of US$600M Vreed-en-Hoop Port to commence this year
Kaieteur News – The construction of the US$600 million Vreed-en-Hoop Port, which will sit on 400 hectares of coastal land, is slated to commence this year.
NRG Holdings Incorporated, a 100-percent Guyanese-owned consortium along with Hadi’s World Incorporated, National Hardware Limited and ZRN Investments Incorporated are the Guyanese investors involved in the project. They have partnered with Jan de Nul Group, a Belgian engineering and construction firm which offers marine services, offshore service, civil engineering, environmental management activities and project development.
Director of NRG Holdings Inc., Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer engages residents on the positive impacts of the Port of Vreed-en-Hoop project.
With plans to bring their multi-million dollar project on stream within three years, the company reported that the construction of the port will commence in 2022.
As such, recently, NRG Holdings conducted community engagements at Vreed-en-Hoop, with residents from communities near where the port will be constructed.
A press release from the company stated that the engagement was held in the conference room of the Region Three Department of Education and that the residents were given the opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns on the potential impact of the development.
Managing Director of National Hardware, Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer, in his address to the residents, highlighted the importance of such a facility to Guyana’s economic development.
“A majority of the work in the oil and gas industry is not happening in Guyana, and the reason it’s not happening in Guyana is because we don’t have the facilities,” he stated.
According to Deygoo-Boyer, who is also a Director of NRG Holdings, stated that a significant amount of the services to the local oil and gas sector is being provided from other countries, such as Trinidad, due to the lack of facilities. He said the port will allow for those services to be provided from Guyana.
He explained that the first phase of the project is an oil and gas shore base, followed by a commercial port.
Notably, he shared that along some of the benefits expected are the reduction of shipping costs by up to 15 percent and income-generating opportunities.
“When we conceptualised this, we did not put services that you in the community can sell to us, food, housing, groceries…,” he said, adding that 220 persons will be needed during the construction phase.
The consortium has already received an environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the project. As part of that permit, they are required to do an Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP). Also, an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) is required by the Financial Lenders. In this regard, data collection—which includes the community engagement— is being conducted by Coastal Dynamics Limited (CDL).
Project Manager at CDL, Keshtav Ramdial explained the process of conducting the assessment and formulating the plan. “We have to understand the environment, we have to collect the necessary environmental and social data, we have to understand the legal framework of the country the project is going to be in,” he stated.
He added, “We then have to determine how that project will impact the environment during the construction and operation.” The objective, he stressed, is to determine the correct mitigation measures that can be employed to reduce any potential negative impact of the project.
Additionally, so far, NRG Holdings have collected a number of environmental datasets as they continue the ESIA. The datasets include water and sediment chemistry; air and noise background levels; Oceanographic data; plankton and benthic macrofauna; flora and fauna surveys, including mangroves; and onshore and offshore avifauna data.
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