Guyana following Ghana in hiding powership contract

Jun 05, 2026 News

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– mirrors limited parliamentary scrutiny of agreement

(Kaieteur News) – Guyana appears to be heading down the same path as Ghana in terms of the hiding of its agreement with Turkish powership Karpowership. Both countries also share similarities in the amount of parliamentary scrutiny of the contract.

In an interview with a former Ghanian government, Kaieteur News was informed that the company has been operating in Ghana since 2015. “It is widely believed that the non-compliance issue, like avoiding parliamentary scrutiny and approval together with some of the clauses agreed on by the negotiating parties that did not favour Ghana, are pointers to corruption and corrupt practices,” the former official said.

Ghana was also threatened by blackouts by the powership company, which the source noted were eventually a reality. Ghana faced several major power outages and negotiations in 2025 with the company resulted in the withdrawal that course of action.

The former government official explained that there was a clause in the contract that facilitated, “Take-or-pay contract: Ghana has to pay for power that Karpowership generates, even if it’s excess and not needed. This was estimated to cost Ghana $12.5B for excess power by 2023.”

Ghanian govt. says it acted lawfully

In an article published by modernghana.com in February 2015, the government rubbished claims by the parliamentary minority that it violated the constitution by allowing the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and the Electricity Company of Ghana to enter into an agreement with Karpower International for the deployment of a power ship.

“The minority argued that the agreement which will result in the deployment of 450 megawatts power ship should have first received parliamentary approval before government issued a letter of comfort to seal it,” the article said.

Guyana’s situation

In Guyana’s case, the contracts for both powerships were signed in April and November 2024, and two years later with a renewal on the way, the public is yet to see the full agreement that the country signed on to. Bits and pieces of information have been released via budget estimates and leaked documents.

Additionally, the project was awarded via sole sourcing and did not go through the National Assembly. However, officials of the government have defended that saying that the procedure used aligns with Section 28, Chapter 73:05 of the Procurement Act 2003, which allows for sole sourcing under specific conditions such as urgent or catastrophic emergencies, highly specialised services or exclusive availability.

Back in 2024, Kaieteur News reported that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has accused Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) David Patterson of misleading the nation on the cost that will be accrued for the rental of the Turkish power ship.

Patterson said that it will cost Guyana more than US$200M to utilise the power ship for the two-year period.

Notwithstanding Patterson’s calculations, Jagdeo did not provide a detailed account of what the country is really paying for the service, leaving Guyanese in the dark over the true cost.

Though the true cost was eventually revealed, and was close to what the politician estimated, the government has still kept the agreement under wraps, so citizens have no idea of the other clauses included, hence they are left in the dark on what the country signed on to.

Pay more or face darkness

The Turkish power company which was hired by Guyana to provide additional electricity to the national grid, pending the startup of the delayed Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project, is demanding an additional $3.4M daily from the government to continue its service.

The contract for the first powership came to an end on May 21, 2026. Having recognised the crisis, the government desperately wrote to the company on May 22, begging for a 30-day extension to hash out a new contract.

The powership operators have flatly rejected the government’s plea, informing that it could not facilitate such a lengthy extension, granting instead a limited one-week window which closed on Monday, June 1, 2026.

Former Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson who held responsibility for power generation between 2015 and 2020, on Monday revealed that the company originally agreed to supply Guyana with 36-megawatts (MW) of electricity at US$0.076 per Kilowatt (KW).

It is now demanding US$0.095/KW – the same rate Guyana is currently paying for the second power ship, stationed in the Demerara River. That vessel provides 60-MW of electricity to the national grid.

As such, Patterson told this  newspaper, “This means that they are demanding a US$0.019/KW – in money terms they will be getting an additional US$15,760 (G$3.4M) per day from this increased rental fees.”

Under the now expired energy contract, Guyana was renting power at US$0.076/KW, forking out US$23,008,665.6 on an annual basis.

The new demands by Karpowership will add about US$5.8M in rental fees, driving up Guyana’s annual bill for that vessel to US$28,780,832.

“The power ship owners are holding the GoG to ransom because they are aware of this government’s incompetence,” the former minister argued.

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• blackout, Karpowership, powership

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