Wild goose chase continues for Gas-to-Energy agreements

Jul 10, 2024 News

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…Minister Teixeira “unaware documents are ready” and Minister Bharrat says “send question”

Kaieteur News – The wild goose chase, initiated by Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo for Guyana to access key agreements inked between the government of Guyana and ExxonMobil for the US$2B Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project continued on Monday, as two senior members of the government failed to say when these documents would be laid in the National Assembly.

Since 2022, the government signed a Heads of Agreement (HOA) with the Stabroek Co-ventures, ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC, that outlines the principles and conditions for the commercial and technical arrangements of the deal. The GTE project includes a pipeline, to be built and financed by the Stabroek Block operator, ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL), while the other two components, a 300 megawatt power plant and a natural gas liquid (NGL) facility is being constructed by the government of Guyana.

Three months ago, the VP during his weekly press conference was asked by this newspaper when the agreements would be made public when he said “maybe soon”.

In fact, the Chief Policymaker for the oil and gas sector noted that the details of the agreement are already public knowledge. According to him, “Everything that you see in the agreement you know…we told you the price- US$750 million; we told you the timeline for implementation; you know how many turbines and what’s the size of the turbines…you know what the liquidating damages are.”

Jagdeo therefore said, “Maybe soon, I don’t know. I don’t know. That’s for Gail Teixeira and the others” when asked when the agreements would be laid in Parliament.

During Monday’s Sitting of the National Assembly at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, Kaieteur News caught up with Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira who explained, “I am not aware that the documents are ready.”

The Minister pointed out that there are “different channels” through which documents must pass before she presents them to the House, insisting “they have a time that they go before the House, it doesn’t happen automatically.”

Notably, with the project expected to be completed next year, Kaieteur News asked the Member of Parliament (MP) whether she believes there is a need for the public to access the documents.

While Teixeira pointed out that the Access to Information Act was designed to allow access to public documents, with particular emphasis on commercial undertakings, she argued that the Law makes it clear when these documents can be released.

According to her, “So, the law that we adopted under the Access to Information Act makes it clear that when things are being negotiated and commercial undertakings, until a certain point, they’re not made public; because obviously you’re negotiating or you’re in positions where you’re adjusting cost price and those types of things.”

Consequently, the Minister explained, “You cannot expect information sometimes to be made available where the negotiations haven’t finished and you may be aware too that in any project sometimes there is review or redesign or re-scoping, based on a variety of factors.”

She said that this concept may be applied to the oil and gas sector as it has in the past with a number of construction projects undertaken by the government.

Meanwhile, Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat when approached to provide a comment on the release of the agreements at the ACCC on Monday said he was busy and would take the question later.

After this newspaper insisted that he provided a comment, the Minister requested that the question be sent to him.

Kaieteur News forwarded the question to the Minister, however it appears he blocked the reporter, as the message remained undelivered, as well as those previously sent to him since June 13, 2024.

Several attempts made by the Opposition in the National Assembly to access the agreements and key documents relative to the country’s single largest infrastructure project have been unsuccessful.

MP Catherine Hughes had complained last year that questions submitted by her were not allowed by Speaker of the House, Manzoor Nadir since these issues were addressed by Head of the GTE Taskforce, Winston Brassington when Guyana hosted its Energy Conference in 2023. This was the fourth attempt by the Opposition seeking details surrounding the controversial GTE project.

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• agreements, gas, GTE, Jagdeo, Parliament, wild goose chase

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