Govt. not rushing to have 2 oil refineries

Aug 18, 2023 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

– mulls creating storage capacity for refined products

Kaieteur News – While Guyanese authorities are interested in building the nation’s first oil refinery, it is not in any hurry to bring a second on stream. This clarification was offered on Thursday by Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo during an engagement with media operatives at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC).

Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo

The official’s comment followed questions from Kaieteur News to explain the rationale for the State’s independent pursuit of a refinery with a capacity for 30,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) while also agreeing recently to explore the possibility of establishing one here with the Dominican Republic.

With respect to the 30,000 bpd refinery, Jagdeo said there was a first round of evaluation and authorities are awaiting more information.

“But even as we do that, a number of countries are sending in proposals to us. At the end of the day, if it (a refinery in partnership with another country) goes forward, it has to be on conditions that are good for our country and they have to meet all the technical and financial requirements,” the Vice President said.

At the moment, the chief policymaker for Guyana’s oil sector acknowledged that the country can only handle one refinery at this time. Such a facility would transform petroleum into useful products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and cooking gas.

Simultaneously, he said the government has an interest in examining the costs of sending some of its crude abroad to be refined and have those products returned and stored as “strategic reserves.” In other words, the administration would create a holding place for oil products that can be tapped in instances of emergencies.

“So one of the reasons we wanted a refinery was to ensure national energy security and we are exploring what it would take to toll some of our crude and what fee we may have to pay for tolling the crude and then bringing back the refined products and storing them; like in the USA, they have strategic reserves,” the Vice President said.

With respect to queries about the government’s consideration of Trinidad and Tobago which has over 100 years in the oil refining industry, Jagdeo said there was some discussion about this at one stage but those did not materialize.

“…But if we are doing a refinery, it would be (have to be located) here because (having it elsewhere) defeats the purpose of your energy security…but if you can get a tolling fee, it can be refined anywhere in the world and you then store the refined products here,” the Vice President said.