Latest update October 30th, 2026 10:25 AM
Wales GTE storage facility
(Kaieteur News) – The numbers are so far apart that one could be excused for thinking there is a mistake. There is no mistake, and it is not a routine matter. Hundreds of millions are at stake. They are in US dollars, which makes the difference significant, and the charge, if this were to succeed, a major pinch on Guyana’s treasury. In this era of billions in oil receipts, spending still should be a matter of prudent management, with every dollar counting, regardless of the currency involved. The issue that stands before this country is the money difference that has seeped into the public domain on the building of a storage facility as part of the US$2B Wales Gas-to-Energy project.
US-based, but Venezuelan owned Lindsayca Guyana Inc., submitted a bid for US$493M to build the storage and offloading facility and pipeline. A Chinese company, China CAM Engineering Co. Ltd submitted a bid for US$28M. It is not a typo, with a digit left out, or lower ones published. The huge differential between the two bids pushed us at this paper to question if the two companies are bidding on the same project, so far apart they are. A differential by a multiple of 17 is amazing on its face alone. What could Lindsayca be including in its work program with costs attached, and what could China CAM be leaving out, to account for this massive difference in bids? It is not a 20% or 30% difference, but the fact of Lindsayca bidding a whopping 1700% more than China CAM. This is what we are grappling with. These are the questions that we ask on behalf of the citizens paying in some way for this storage and offloading facility.
What could be responsible for this US$465M difference in the bids by the two companies? Does Lindsayca possess superior engineering and technological skills, which China CAM does not have, and for which there is a big markup (multiplied by 17)? Is there more to this mysterious bidding gap, and it has nothing to do with skills and expertise, cost of materials, and the machineries needed?
A concern that we have, one which is known and felt throughout Guyana, is that Lindsayca seems to have some serious operating cashflow challenges. Its own documents and representations, now public, confirm the desperate situation faced by the company. Is that cash question, this knotty cash challenge, in any way responsible for this extraordinary bid from the Venezuelan managed company? We do not know, but we can say something with conviction. When an individual or a business entity is living in a state of continuing cash shortage, severe cash shortfalls, on occasion, they may be prompted to throw caution to the winds, and push ahead with desperate efforts to remedy their situation. Could this be what has unfolded in that Lindsayca bid before the national tender board?
Guyana’s National Procurement and Tender Board Administration (NPTAB) is now placed in an uncomfortable position. It has to review and decide between one bid for US$493M (Lindsayca’s) and another for US$28M from China CAM. NPTAB is trapped in a difficult place. If it finds grounds to award Lindsayca the storage and offloading facility contract, it risks igniting a firestorm of condemnation. And calling into question still more, the PPP/C Government’s relationship with this Venezuelan led company. US$97M was already paid to Lindsayca when it won a Dispute Arbitration award. The PPP/C Government tried to hide that information, and when it did disclose on the heels of pressure from this paper (and others), a percentage was used to represent payment to disguise the US$97M paid to Lindsayca.
When a government goes to such lengths to hide, and minimise, its dealings with Lindsayca, then what else would it not think twice about disguising? Concerns grow that the government is using this storage facility bid as the means to fill Lindsayca’s cashflow shortage. The US$465M differential between the two bids is just too big to be accepted as normal business, or to be ignored. No single sub-project should have two bids so many millions apart.
Given recent developments between Lindsayca and the Government, keen watchfulness is required to stay on top of this situation. It smells.
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I suggest, Guyana Government/NPTAB hold off awarding this contract which
could place the GTE-West Bank Project in jeopardy with further delay, should
CHINA CAM win the contract for $28 M US.
I hate to say so but, desperation will lead to stalling.