Wales GTE – comedy of errors, or collection of crimes

May 30, 2026 Editorial, News

Editorial

(Kaieteur News) – The rate at which the US$2B Wales gas-to-Energy (GTE) is going indicates that more weaknesses and the secrets are likely to be part of its existence. The GTE started out wrong and has not recovered since. At best, it represents the work of a government and its cronies beginning a hugely expensive project on the basis of guesswork, and hoping to skate to successful completion. At worst, this costly project stands as another political scheme that promises much to citizens, while picking their pockets.

Any partially credible study would have barred Wales as the site for the Natural Gas Liquifying plant and the power generation facility. The soil was too unstable, and it ended up needing almost US$100M to remedy that deficit. To prudent political decisionmakers, such news would have prompted more than less of them to change their minds and open up the search for an alternate site. With an eye on price, and keen awareness that the Wales GTE was marching away from the original price level for such a project at another location, a reasonable expectation was that leadership caution would have prevailed. In other words, the cost is getting out of hand, so it is back to the planning room.

We believe that the deficiency in such an expectation lies in the belief that Guyanese are dealing with reasonable leaders, who are worthy of trust. Political power, individual hubris, and large inflows of oil money when operating in combination upends those expectations. The result is that caution and listening to constructive public voices, reviewing and adjusting, never stood a chance. Not when those three elements dominate so much, i.e., power, hubris, and money. It is obvious that much of this was fused into the Wales GTE from the inception. The mentality was, and still is, ‘we are in charge, we will do as we please, and we don’t have to listen to anyone.’ That mindset has not delivered any encouraging signs relative to the GTE, but continues to bury it under a blanket of leadership hostility, hidden documents, broken promises, and a stream of denials. Only after a lengthy interval of silence and ducking do the facts emerge, and then in mere drips and drabs.

Who can trust either the government or those piloting the project forward? Who are the Guyanese that believe the contractor can deliver the two long-delayed plants to get this project going and the cheap electricity flowing? Who in this country is confident that there will not be more delays, more costs, and more disputes? And who in the local environment is willing to believe that the US$2B (and definitely several hundred US millions more) will still result in half-priced electricity whenever it goes live?

It would be helpful if the three prominent leaders who are nearest to this much-watched and much-anticipated project would put aside their past errors and their past aggressiveness, and share the real facts and figures, and all of them, with citizens. Delays and costs aside, the secretive manner that has characterised the managing of this biggest project to date has opened the owners those secrets to the worst contempt imaginable. What did the PPP/C Government, specifically the movers of this project, know about soil instability, the cost to rectify, and when did they know? If they knew as early as the first reports on this project, as seems plausible, then why did that also have to be hidden from citizens? And, if provision was made for it, as also is becoming apparent, then why the sleight of hand to mislead the people who had a need to know, the people paying the US$2B, and however much more it costs?

A project that offered much benefits for local energy consumers went south from the beginning, continues to spur uncalled-for controversy and ongoing uncertainty. Even at this late hour, with many embarrassing failures, the PPP/C Government is still happy to stick to its secretive and, sometimes, abusive, mode. President Irfaan Ali has a duty to Guyanese to report every material fact on this project. The nation has a right to know the best estimates of the final cost, the project’s hard delivery date, and the failures to be terminated.

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Editorial, gas-to-energy, Natural Gas Liquifying plant, Wales GtE

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