Exxon silent as pressure mounts over gas pipeline 'anomaly'

Exxon silent as pressure mounts over gas pipeline ‘anomaly’

Jul 19, 2026 News

(Kaieteur News) – ExxonMobil has remained silent for more than a week as questions mount over an “anomaly” in Guyana’s multi-billion-dollar gas-to-shore pipeline, even as the government has offered conflicting accounts, the opposition has pressed for answers, and engineering experts have raised concerns about the project’s integrity.

The issue became public after Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed posted video and photographic evidence to Facebook showing water bubbling to the ocean surface directly above the pipeline’s path, filmed just feet from marking buoys.

“Imagine you have the evidence where the pipeline is ruptured, you can see the water is bubbling up… and yet, they will come out and lie to the country,” Mohamed said, alleging the pipeline sits less than 10 feet deep at low tide — within a major shipping channel — without proper feasibility studies. “This is something that will continue to happen over and over,” he warned.

Alliance For Change’s (AFC) interim leader David Patterson has criticised both the safety of the project and the adequacy of its regulatory oversight. “The gas pipeline was reported to have been completed since 2024 — two years later not a single kilowatt of power has been produced,” he said, arguing the reported anomaly warrants rigorous engineering assessment regardless of how officials characterise it.

Patterson contended that neither Maritime Administration (MARAD) nor the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the technical capacity to independently certify a major gas transmission pipeline, and that allowing Exxon — the pipeline’s builder — to verify its own work is a conflict of interest. He called instead for independent testing by international pipeline integrity specialists.

He also pointed to onshore problems at Wales, citing publicly shared photos showing the gas generating sets are far from complete, along with reports of defective foundation work at the site. “Proceeding without corrective action will lead to potential major disaster,” Patterson warned, saying the foundations need investigation and repair before any generating sets are connected to the pipeline.

The project’s price tag has climbed from an initial US$900 million cap set in April 2021, with a 2024 completion target, to more than US$3 billion, with no firm completion date now in sight. Patterson accused the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) government of concealing these delays while continuing to promise a 50% cut in electricity rates, pointing to the recent two-year renewal of a 36MW rental power ship as evidence the timeline has slipped. “They are well aware that this project has about that time period to be completed,” he said, “if it ever will be completed.”

The government’s position changed sharply within 24 hours. Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat initially denied any pipeline rupture, telling Demerara Waves there were “no reports” of structural failure and suggesting routine testing was underway. By Thursday, a joint statement from the EPA and MARAD struck a more cautious tone: while insisting there was “no factual basis” for rupture claims, the agencies confirmed a report had been investigated and described a “slight anomaly.”

To explain the bubbling water without confirming a leak, officials have pointed to the pipeline’s inactivity. Government consultant Winston Brassington said the line is currently filled with inert nitrogen — standard practice for preserving uncommissioned pipelines — a point ExxonMobil Guyana has also made, noting nitrogen will remain in the line until it is ready to supply the 300-megawatt power plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.

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Anomaly, Azruddin Mohamed, ExxonMobil, gas pipeline

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