VP Jagdeo exposed on Gas-to-Energy project

Jan 24, 2025 News

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…US EXIM Bank says no feasibility study done

…Jagdeo now says bank did due diligence study

…bars media from asking further questions on project

Kaieteur News- In a bid to brush off the constant requests for the studies he claimed were conducted by the United States Export Import (US EXIM) Bank for the controversial gas-to-energy project, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo directed citizens to ask the financial institution for copies of these documents.

In an official correspondence to a group of citizens who subsequently filed a request, the US EXIM Bank explained on January 22, 2025 that it never conducted a feasibility study for the Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project.

Deputy Chief Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Officer, Lance Matthews, in his response to the citizens’ said, “We conducted a comprehensive search of the files within the Office of Board Authorized Finance, Engineering and Environment Division for records that would be responsive to your request. This is the component within EXIM in which responsive records could reasonably be expected to be found. Please be advised we were unable to locate or identify any responsive records, as EXIM did not conduct a feasibility study.”

Meanwhile, Jagdeo at his weekly press conference on Thursday said he observed the response from the Bank was shared on social media. He went on to explain that when he spoke of the feasibility study previously, he was referring to the due diligence report, conducted by a Consultant group, Sargent and Lundy on behalf of the EXIM Bank.

Jagdeo said, “Now I have here a due diligence report EXIM Bank did, which looks at technical feasibility and financial feasibility and it was done by a company called Sargent and Lundy for EXIM Bank itself.”

The VP argued that the Opposition parties believe that the Bank would operate the way in which they did, while in office, and grant a loan for over US$500 million without conducting due diligence.  To this end, he clarified, “…and it’s the due diligence I was talking about surrounding the feasibility.”

According to Jagdeo, the Consultant did a 197-page due diligence report that is in the hands of government, but this remains the property of the US EXIM Bank since the institution financed the study.

No more questions!

During the question and answer segment, Kaieteur News attempted to question the VP on the GTE project when the former President became annoyed and said, “I don’t remember anything about the Gas-to-Energy and Kaieteur News.”

This newspaper even volunteered to refresh his memory but he said, “Please don’t. If it’s on Gas-to-Energy, I’ve dealt enough with that. It’s done. I’m not going anymore into this big charade. You write what you have to write. The stupidness that Kaieteur News writes and we (are) working on completing the project for the people of this country.”  As such, he urged the reporter, “Move on to the next question! No Gas-to-Energy anymore.” He explained that another reporter “tested his patience” so “no more on that, move on!”

Government exposed

Meanwhile, one of the citizens who had written to the Bank, Elizabeth Deane-Hughes, in an invited comment told this newspaper that the recent revelation points to the importance of following the advice of politicians. Deane-Hughes, who has been a strong advocate for transparency in this project, also explained that the citizens are awaiting another response under the Freedom of Information Act for whether or not the government of Guyana submitted any documents for the feasibility of the GTE, and whether or not a feasibility study was conducted in accordance with Section 12 of the Petroleum Agreement with ExxonMobil – the contractor of the pipeline to transport gas to the plants. She said the information has been requested and has received a number for processing within the system.

In the meantime, Deane-Hughes said this situation taught citizens to follow the advice given by the government. “We will see where this all leads us to at the end, but right now, we know that it’s a terminological inexactitude of what was claimed- that EXIM Bank had done their own feasibility studies,” she said.  The advocate added that it would be interesting to understand what the VP meant that citizens should ask EXIM for the studies since they conducted their own feasibility of the project.

Feasibility study and Jagdeo

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.”

When asked subsequently on January 9, 2025 about making those studies public, he directed Kaieteur News to request them from the US EXIM Bank.  The VP argued, “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…” To this end, a group of citizens in a statement, dated January 10, 2025 said they requested Bank to share documents relating to the GTE project it has provided a US$527M loan to support.

Hiding documents

Since 2022, the government signed a Heads of Agreement with ExxonMobil for the project however, the administration has been reluctant to release that study.  Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat told the National Assembly that, “There are other agreements on supply, buyer’s agreement, field development, licensing conditions, onshore works, and land matters that are currently being drafted. The respective agreements and policy documents will be presented to this Honourable House when they have been agreed upon and executed. All agreements are being done in a timely manner to meet the Final Investment Decision which will allow for the project to be completed by our committed deadline of December 2024.”

Although the pipeline has been completed by ExxonMobil, the agreement is yet to be laid in Parliament.  Similarly, no study has been released to date confirming the financial feasibility of the GTE project, the single largest financial venture ever pursued in the history of Guyana.

(Jagdeo exposed on Gas-to-Energy project)

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• EXIM, feasibility, GTE, Jagdeo, study

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