Selling Smoke: How Guyana is Soliciting Investors for a Project Built on Shifting Ground

Apr 23, 2026 Letters

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Dear Editor,

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑡 𝑊𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠 — 𝑦𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑔𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑚𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑠, 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑢𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑚 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒.

There is a particular kind of audacity that only governments seem capable of — the audacity of asking strangers to invest in a dream that its own architects have not yet been able to make real. The administration’s latest call for expressions of interest in the Guyana Ammonia and Urea Plant and the Guyana Gas Bottling and Logistics Company is, at its surface, a bold stroke of economic nationalism. Dig beneath the press release language, however, and one finds not solid ground, but a foundation riddled with unanswered questions, unresolved controversies, and delays that have become, to use the word plainly, intolerable.

Let us be precise about what is being offered. The government invites Guyanese nationals, diaspora investors, and interested parties worldwide to contribute between one and five million US dollars each into companies that will depend entirely on the Gas-to-Energy plant at Wales — a project that was once heralded as transformative, that was promised on multiple timelines, and that, as of this writing, has not been delivered. To solicit downstream investment before the upstream infrastructure is operational is not bold economic planning. It is, at best, premature. At worst, it risks becoming something far more troubling.

The Wales development has by now accumulated a history of its own — one that the government has been conspicuously reluctant to narrate in full. Procurement decisions surrounding the project have attracted scrutiny from media entities, civil society organisations, energy sector analysts, and opposition voices who have raised pointed questions about contract awards, cost escalations, and the opacity with which decisions have been made. These are not fringe allegations. They are documented concerns that circulate in public discourse precisely because official explanations have been insufficient or entirely absent.

And yet, into this atmosphere of unresolved doubt, the Office of the Prime Minister now extends an open hand to investors. The notice is carefully worded — assurances of a guaranteed ten percent annual return, a submission deadline of May 15, preference for Guyanese nationals. The language is reassuring. The context is anything but.

Consider what a prudent investor — one with genuine due diligence obligations — would need to know before committing even one million dollars to the gas bottling venture. They would need certainty that the NGL facility will be commissioned on schedule. They would need independent audits of project costs to date. They would need transparent governance structures for the proposed private companies. They would need credible answers to allegations that have never been formally addressed. None of these assurances appear in the government’s notice.

THE NUMBERS ON THE TABLE

• GAUP ESTIMATED COST – US$300 million — ammonia and urea production facility
• GGBLC ESTIMATED COST – US$40 million — gas bottling and logistics
• INVESTOR CAP (GAUP) – Up to US$5 million per investor
• INVESTOR CAP (GGBLC) – Up to US$1 million per investor
• PROMISED RETURN – 10% guaranteed annual return
• SUBMISSION DEADLINE – May 15, 2026
• POWER OUTPUT TARGET – Up to 300 megawatts from GtE plant

What the notice does offer is a revealing phrase: the government reminds applicants that “final terms and conditions may vary” and that authorities reserve the right to “accept or reject any submission and to modify or cancel the process at any stage.” One admires the candour of the disclaimer, even as one questions the wisdom of publishing it alongside a pitch for private capital. It is the fine print that says, in plain language: we do not yet know what we are doing.

The delays themselves deserve sharper language than they have received in official communications. They are not mere administrative hiccups. Each year of delay in commissioning the GtE plant represents a year in which Guyanese households and businesses continue to pay among the highest electricity rates in the Caribbean. It represents a year in which the industrial diversification promise — the fertiliser plants, the petrochemical ambitions, the manufacturing hub — remains precisely that: a promise.

“𝙏𝙤 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙞𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙪𝙥𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙘 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 — 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙘 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙪𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙩𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙗𝙧𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙣, 𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣.”

What compounds this conundrum is the structural nature of the contradiction the administration now courts. On one hand, the government has repeatedly cited the Wales development as evidence of its economic stewardship — a signature achievement-in-progress, a demonstration that Guyana’s oil revenues are being channelled into productive transformation. On the other hand, the project’s continued delays and its surrounding controversies have become, in opposition circles and among increasingly vocal civil society voices, a symbol of something quite different: of procurement irregularities left unaccounted for, of cost overruns normalised, of deadlines treated as decorative.

Inviting investor participation in this environment does not resolve that contradiction. It deepens it. Because now, private citizens — many of them ordinary Guyanese hoping to benefit from the country’s oil windfall — are being asked to put their money into enterprises whose viability rests entirely on a foundation that remains, at this hour, unbuilt and under a cloud.

There is also a governance question that this notice raises but does not answer: who will oversee these new private companies? What accountability mechanisms will protect minority investors who may collectively represent tens of millions of dollars in contributed capital? The notice says submissions must include “legal and beneficial ownership” details, a sensible requirement in the direction of transparency. But the government has not committed to equivalent transparency about its own stewardship of the GtE project — the very asset on which GAUP and GGBLC depend for their survival.

We do not write this as adversaries of the Gas-to-Energy vision. This media — platform has long recognised the strategic logic of monetising natural gas for domestic industrial purposes rather than merely flaring it or exporting it unprocessed. The concept of a Wales hub — anchoring fertiliser production, reducing electricity costs, enabling new manufacturing — is sound. The national interest in seeing it succeed is real and widely shared.

But sound concepts require honest execution. They require that when delays occur, governments explain them fully rather than absorbing them into the background noise of bureaucratic time. They require that when allegations of impropriety surface around major public contracts, they are investigated rigorously and the findings made public. They require that investors — especially ordinary Guyanese nationals being asked to stake savings on a ten percent return — are given something more substantial than a deadline and a disclaimer.

The government has described this notice as a “preliminary expression of interest” with final terms still to come. We take that at face value. But preliminary or not, it sets an expectation in the market. It signals readiness. And that signal, in the current climate, is at minimum misleading and at maximum irresponsible — not because the Wales dream is unworthy, but because the Wales reality has not yet been honestly reckoned with.

Guyana has earned, through the extraordinary fortune of its offshore discoveries, a rare second chance to build something lasting for its people. That chance can still be seized. But not through the theatre of investor roadshows conducted over unfinished infrastructure. The administration owes this country — and any investor considering these ventures — a full accounting before the next signature is sought.

Sincerely,

Hemdutt Kumar

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• Hemdutt Kumar, Letters, Shifting Ground, Soliciting Investors

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