Parameters for gas-to-energy project being defined

WITH the aim of moving to implementation in the first half of the new year, Government has started defining the parameters for the potential gas-to-energy project, which is expected to significantly reduce the cost of electricity, and produce other spin-off benefits.

“We have already started working on the gas-to-energy project… We have been defining the parameters of the project; we have already had several meetings with ‘Exxon’, so we are clearer on the parameters,” said Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo during a press briefing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Friday.
Among Government’s aims, through this project, is to acquire between 200-250 megawatts of power, and to have enough gas to supply the entire country with cooking gas.
Part of the new People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government’s plans is to reduce the cost of energy by 50 per cent through an energy mix, which includes the conversion of natural gas from ExxonMobil’s offshore operations to electricity.

President of ExxonMobil’s local operation, Alistair Routledge was reported recently as saying that about one-fifth of the resources discovered so far in the Stabroek Block contain natural gas, most of which would be associated gas produced with the crude oil.
It is common knowledge that natural gas can be used to generate electricity in a variety of ways, but the local plan is to establish an industrial facility that generates electricity from primary energy, which, in this case, is natural gas.

Tapping the benefits of this commodity is something Government is hoping to accomplish soon, said Vice-President Jagdeo.
“Hopefully, we move to a project implementation stage soon; early next year. And we are hoping for a three-year timespan for that,” said the Vice-President.
Guyana is said to have one of the highest costs of power generation in the world, a factor which has discouraged many businesses from investing here.
But, immediately after, once completed, the gas-to-energy project is expected to effect a reduction in the price for electricity, as it will bring in a ‘huge’ base-load capacity at a lower price. The base-load on a grid is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a period of time.

Production of this electricity would require a power plant, the area for which Government is also working on identifying.
It was reported recently that close to 2,000 acres of land is required for the construction of a power plant to facilitate the potential gas-to-energy project.
The potential site for a power plant is being considered, simultaneously with a location for the landing of pipes, which will run directly from ExxonMobil’s operations to a designated area onshore Guyana.

“There were several studies done before by a number of different agencies, such as Public Infrastructure and the Finance Ministry; and there are a few people who were involved in those studies, who are still there… A few of them are even part of the task force, so they have good knowledge about the project,” said Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Vickram Bharrat, adding that preliminary information from those studies show three potential areas for the landing of a pipeline.

Among those areas are Berbice; East Coast Demerara; and Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara).
“With gas-to-energy, we will be able to produce energy at competitive rates, and this will allow us to attract a lot of investors, especially in the manufacturing sector,” said Minister Bharrat in a recent report.

He even envisages the country having one of the largest industrial parks in the Caribbean, with the advent of this project.