GTE – more detailed studies needed

Jul 09, 2025 Editorial, News

Kaieteur News – To use Vice President Jagdeo’s own words when backed into a corner with questions he wants to duck, that has been said a million times before. In the context of the Wales Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project, more detailed studies are needed, and that has been said so many times, it has to be a million. The latest calling for that is the AFC’s chairman, David Patterson, and his party’s lead on oil and gas matters. We endorse the call for more detailed studies, which originated with this paper, and what we have been taking the lead in putting before Guyana’s chief policymaker, Jagdeo.

The time for completion and putting the project in operation keeps moving, as though it is some game being played on a field. When Jagdeo is involved in something as big as the Wales GTE, then games are what Guyanese have had to live with. It is more than a time-consuming game, for it is also an expensive one. The project started out at approximately US$900M, then kept ballooning and ballooning until it settled at US$2B. As expected, that turned out to be for a time only. Patterson is now pointing to the new number quietly associated with the project, which is about US$2.4B. The time for the delivery of this much-anticipated project keeps extending, and also does the cost of it. If that reminds readers of past Jagdeo projects, it is.

He is well aware that Guyanese, living in a state of constant blackouts for long periods, and often in a series of them within the span of a day, hang onto his every word that relief is on the way. It would be good if that were so, but where is it, and when will that relief come to life, on the terms that Jagdeo has insisted would be prominent features of it? He has continued to promise a 50% cut in electricity, even though the cost of the project has gone up by 170%, and the end is still not in sight. Time is money, delays cost money, and somebody is going to be saddled with paying back that money that’s due. One thing is for sure, he is going to ensure that he is as far from that as possible, when that time comes around.

The cost goes ever upwards, the amount of electricity to be supplied has stayed constant, but Guyana’s chief oil and gas man is still selling half-price electricity. There were no expert studies shared with Guyanese on what is behind the foundations of his promises. Despite an insistent clamour from the media and engaged members of civil society, all that Guyanese have received is what Jagdeo has shared with them, next to nothing. Now, there are renewed calls from the political opposition for more detailed studies, which he is most likely going to dismiss out of hand, based on his prior representations.

He used to dance around with responses that led nowhere. Then, he became cleverer than usual, by sending the media on wild goose chases. From Prime Minister Mark Phillips to Minister of Governance Gail Teixeira to Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat, who all turned out to be dead ends and blank walls. To repeat what we have said many times before, if the US$2.4B Wales GTE is so good, rests on such solid grounds, then it can only be good for Jagdeo to roll that out. Instead, he has slipped questions, and then came up with what buried him several feet deeper. The last was that he is not going to say anything about the project until after it is completed.

Is that the action of a leader with better in mind for Guyanese? Or is it the haunted reaction of a man with something to hide, one forced to take evasive steps? Whatever studies he has, they will make Guyana’s oilman look good, or they will expose him for selling Guyanese a pig in a bag, at twice the price. The failure of Jagdeo either to present the studies he has or to commission more detailed ones reflects his fear. He is trapped, because both could show this Wales GTE realistically and confirm his status as a pretender.

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David Patterson, Editorial, GTE, Vice President Jagdeo, Wales Gas-to-Energy

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