Govt. to tender for another component of GTE project

Govt. to tender for another component of GTE project – Jagdeo

Nov 04, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – As the Government of Guyana (GoG) move ahead with its much vaunted US-multibillion Wales, West Bank Demerara Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project–Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday disclosed that soon the government will tender for another component of the project.

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday at his press conference

As previously reported, the GTE project will encompass three major aspects, that is, the pipeline to transport the gas to Wales; the Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility that will treat and separate the gas, and the power plant to generate the electricity. Notably, so far, Guyanese have been told that the pipeline aspect, which is being pursued by US-oil major ExxonMobil, will cost around US$1.3 billion and the government’s aspect is expected to cost around US$700M – both price tags are scheduled to increase.

During his press conference, Jagdeo stated that the government will soon be tendering for a transmission line. He explained that the transmission line will be used to transport electricity from Wales to Eccles, East Bank Demerara. Jagdeo said, “Separately, we are going to go out soon for the transmission main to bring the power across from Wales to a substation in Eccles and then to distribute around the country that will be tendered shortly…”

An artist’s impression of the gas-to-energy project

In another update on the ambitious GTE project, the Vice President disclosed that the government had hired two international firms, Stantec from Canada and Whirley from the United Kingdom (UK) to evaluate the bids received from the contractors for the construction of the power plant and the NGL facility. He stated that the decision was made by the government to hire two firms to evaluate the technical aspect of the bid due to the fact that the government does not have the expertise to do so. Jagdeo added that the firms have both submitted their evaluation reports on the bids that were received for the government aspect of the GTE project. To this end, he stated that a team has been established to go over the evaluation reports before a recommendation is made within the next two weeks. According to Jagdeo, once the team recommends a company for the project it will then go to cabinet for approval.

Back in September, Kaieteur News reported that five international firms had submitted their bids for the power plant and NGL facility. Companies from China, Puerto Rico, and United States all vied for the project. The companies’ bids ranged from US$466,649,772 to US$898,764,244.

While the Irfaan Ali Government is moving ahead with the GTE, a recent United Nations (UN) report warned Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) countries against pursing natural gas projects. The Report noted that pursuing natural gas projects in the Region is costlier than transitioning to renewable energy. It states that an expansion of renewable energy sources instead of continuing a fossil fuel path, even with what has been promoted as ‘clean’ natural gas, would be by far the best choice for the Region in terms of costs, jobs, and Green House Gas (GHG) emission reductions. The report stated too, that investing in renewable energy largely outweighs economic, social and climate benefits of natural gas for energy generation.

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