No agreement signed for Guyana to buy gas from ExxonMobil – Jagdeo

May 13, 2026 News

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…as Gas-to-Energy documents still hidden from public

(Kaieteur News) – Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo has denied reports that Guyana has inked an agreement with ExxonMobil to purchase gas from the Stabroek Block to support the Wales Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project.

During a Public Day event, hosted at the Arthur Chung Conference Center, Lilliendaal, East Coast Demerara, this newspaper asked the VP whether Guyana has agreed to buy the country’s gas from Exxon.

To this end, he clearly stated, “No, the gas to the power plant is free. You can quote me on that. Gas to the power plant is free. We negotiated that a long time. We’ve been in the public domain as saying that the gas to come in – the 50 million cubic feet per day coming in to the power plant – is free. Nothing has changed since.”

The former President did not allow further questions, turning his attention to other members of the public at the venue.

In April, reliable sources close to the GTE project indicated that government has agreed to a Gas Sales Agreement with the company.

While the VP has denied the existence of such a contract between Guyana and Exxon, the government has refused to publish all documents relative to the project, a move that continues to spark concern.

Since 2022 members of the opposition parties have been calling on the GoG to release the contracts signed with Exxon.

Last month, former Finance Minister, Winston Jordan in an exclusive interview with Kaieteur News raised a number of questions following a report indicating that Guyana has signed an agreement with ExxonMobil to purchase its own gas from the Stabroek Block.

Jordan said that while he has not seen the secret contract between the GoG and Exxon, he firmly believes that Guyana should not have to pay for its own gas. “Jagdeo had said the gas would be free and all we will be paying for is the pipeline,” he recalled.

In fact, Jordan pointed out that this notion was used to push the project as feasible, which therefore raises serious questions about the economics of GTE. Given this new development, the former minister urged that a study should be conducted to determine whether continuing with the project would be cheaper than continuing the use of HFOs with improved efficiency.

“The government of Guyana now has to come clean. They have to tell us clearly whether there is a contract between the GoG and Exxon to purchase gas that originally Jagdeo said will be made available for free. That is what was made the project economically feasible. If you now have to pay for gas at the commercial price, what are the implications for the GTE in terms of the tariffs? Will they still be able to cut tariffs by 50% and if they go ahead with that, how much will the government be subsidizing electricity and whether that subsidy would be bigger than the actual subsidy they are giving right now to the consumers,” the former minister questioned.

He said it would be interesting to know what circumstances led to the change in position regarding the free gas.

Moreover, Jordan argued that if the information published was incorrect, it is the responsibility of the government to not only reject, but respond with concrete evidence.

“We have not seen a single document in relation to this project and so we keep speculating and they can end all the speculation by putting the document in the public domain or come out and refute with evidence what we have said. You have to show the evidence that this is not so and they can withhold whatever proprietary information from the contracts,” he said.

Promises to release GTE documents

In December 2022, the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat informed the National Assembly that although agreements were inked with Exxon for the project in June 2022, the time was not right to publish the documents.

“Mr. Speaker, the Government of Guyana has signed a Heads of Agreement (HOA) with the Stabroek Co-ventures 30th June 2022. This agreement sets out the principles and conditions for the commercial and technical arrangements of the Gas-to-Energy Project,” Bharrat said.

He however noted, “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.”

Subsequently, the project shifted to the Prime Minister’s office which holds responsibility for the energy sector. He too made several commitments in Parliament to publish the documents but has not done so to date.

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• Exxon, ExxonMobil, gas deal, gas-to-energy, Wales Gas-to-Energy

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