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‘Ask Exim Bank for feasibility and environmental studies on Gas-to-Energy project’ –Jagdeo tells reporters
Kaieteur News- Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday, refused to commit to releasing the feasibility and environmental studies in relation to the Gas-to-Energy project.
In response to a question calling for the release of the documents to the public, at his weekly press conference held at Freedom House, Georgetown, Jagdeo said, “Which public is asking…? He claimed that the People Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has released a number of studies but to no avail.
Jagdeo continued, “everything we published… The Kaieteur News used to make a big issue about, ‘Oh we didn’t publish all of these contracts that were signed with the oil companies,’ so we published even the one signed under APNU. We put all of the environmental permits online. All the agreements that we signed – the large-scale mineral agreements; they complained about that, we put that online…” …”Now, you want the environmental and feasibility studies from EXIM Bank. Ask Exim Bank for it…” the vice president said.
An artist’s impression of the Gas-to-Energy project
The government has been reluctant to release any document relative to the project. Former Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams, had challenged Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo to publish the studies reportedly done by the United States Export Import (US EXIM) Bank for the Gas-to-Energy (GTE) Project.
The Vice President had previously argued that the Bank conducted its own feasibility and environmental studies before arriving at its decision to provide financing for the Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility and the 300-megawatt (MW) power plant, currently being constructed at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
He said, “So suddenly, the United States of America, the U.S. EXIM Bank did its own feasibility study, it did an environmental study and it made the loan to the government of Guyana so they were wrong on all counts…for years we took a beating for one, it’s not feasible; two, there’s no environmental impact study and three, the loan will not happen – all three were proven wrong.”
To this end, Dr. Adams called for the release of the documents. “Well show us those documents and first of all, EXIM Bank cannot do an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment).”
The former Head of the Agency explained that Guyana’s Environmental Protection Act is clear in terms of the protocol that must be followed for the conduct of an EIA. Consequently, he said, “So don’t come…he’s coming with this foolishness that EXIM did an EIA and we said they never did an EIA.” He was at the time delivering remarks during the Alliance For Change’s (AFC’s) first press conference of 2025.
Kaieteur News understands that the EIA process not only involves the review of impacts from a project but also critically involves Guyanese to allow for comments, feedback and questions at almost each stage. An EIA is usually conducted following a decision by the EPA. The public is usually then engaged to inform the consultant of issues that should be addressed in the study. Upon completion of the study, it is published for public comments again.
Dr. Adams also pointed out that the EIA conducted by ExxonMobil for the gas pipeline clearly stated that a separate environmental study would be done for gas plants. He recalled that the government said there would be no EIA for the project but is now claiming that the US EXIM Bank not only conducted an EIA but a feasibility study for the project.
(An artist’s impression of the Gas-to-Energy project)
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