Latest update January 20th, 2025 4:00 AM
Govt. to complete Gas Strategy Plan by year-end – Jagdeo
Kaieteur News – While American oil giant, ExxonMobil continues to develop a Gas Utilization Plan for Guyana, the State is working on its own Gas Strategy Plan that is slated to be completed at the end of this year.
Vice President (VP), Bharrat Jagdeo shared during a press conference on Friday at the Arthur Chung Conference Center that India will be assisting Guyana in developing the document that guides the state in monetizing the resource.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo
Jagdeo only a few days ago returned from the South Asian state where the two sides discussed areas of future collaboration. In fact, the Cabinet in India is said to be reviewing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will see partnership between the two countries in areas such as agriculture, energy, health, and others.
The VP told reporters, “We have embarked on the Gas-to-Energy project that will utilize some of the natural gas that is produced or we have discovered offshore. We are now pushing Exxon to complete the gas utilization plan. We hope this would be completed very soon and we are working on our own gas strategy. We are going to get some of the Consultants from India and other places to work with us on having a national gas strategy which will determine what we do with the gas that is being found offshore so far.”
He said the gas strategy will be completed before the end of 2023, clarifying that this document will not prevent the development of the Gas-to-Energy initiative.
ExxonMobil through its subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) will be funding the 12 inch pipeline that will be used to transport the resource to Wales where a Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) plant will treat and separate the gas for use in the 300 megawatts power plant.
Some 50 million cubic feet of gas per day will be piped to shore, however Jagdeo said this is not the full capacity of the structure.
He said, “We said to Exxon, the pipeline…will have the capacity to bring in more gas. We have had the discussions very early about utilizing the pipeline to its full capacity so that means maybe another 70 to 80 million cubic feet of gas every day.”
The VP noted that the state is seeking guidance on how to utilize the gas. “How do we use that? That is what we are discussing now. We went out already for expressions of interest and a lot of interest is being expressed as to how to utilize the gas.”
He was keen to note that while Exxon initially pointed out that the gas has to be re-injected into the wells to maintain its quality, government has a different view.
To this end, he made it clear that if Exxon refuses to utilize the resources discovered, they may have to relinquish the area.
“Exxon has argued in the beginning that they need all of the associated gas pumped back into the wells to keep the quality of the wells up. We have a different view on this matter…so that is why the gas utilization plan has to be done and we are working on our gas strategy and the discussions have to take place on how we monetize the gas…we made it clear, if they are not going to utilize it, they have to relinquish it, and we may find other people who are prepared to utilize the gas and I’m saying this openly.”
Back in May last year when the VP announced Exxon will be conducting the Gas Utilization Plan, he disclosed that Guyana’s gas reserve currently totals 16 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). In light of this, he believes there is merit to the advice offered by industry experts that the country would be wise to develop a gas master plan.
The Vice President indicated that the government is of the firm conviction that the gas resource can be as lucrative as the oil component of Exxon’s operations. He stressed however that a lot hinges on the availability of the gas and not being carried away by the size of the reserve.
This is so as a portion of the gas must be re-injected to ensure the reservoir pressure is stable.
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