Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, says his administration is committed to establishing a natural gas facility to meet the country’s energy needs.
Dr. Ali’s remarks come almost a week after President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, said approximately 20 percent of the more than 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources discovered at the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana contain natural gas.
For decades, as many know, Guyana has been faced with the issue of power outages and the high electricity cost, which many businesses have complained about and attributed their high operational costs to. However, with the discovery of the offshore resources, discussions got underway on piping some of the natural gas to our shore.
During a virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), the President stated, “We need to address the issue of energy and the cost of energy. So, we have committed to having the hydro project back on the agenda supported by a natural gas facility.”
He said the objective is to bring down the energy cost in three years by almost 60 percent.
“So, we must have a net surplus of energy, enough energy to develop a proper manufacturing and processing center whilst we bring down that cost of energy by almost 60 percent,” he said.
In 2017, a feasibility study was undertaken to examine the costs and associated impacts of bringing natural gas onshore Guyana by way of a pipeline, and in late 2017, several sites were shortlisted for the establishment of a natural gas power plant.
Dr. Ali said that his government is committed to bringing back the hydropower project and the rolling out of a renewable energy programme for the hinterland and river in communities.
So, we’re committing to have the hydro project back on the agenda [that] is supported by a natural gas facility, and also [an] alternative energy programme for the hinterland and riverain communities. We’ve already spoken to the Indian government for a US$10M loan to start work in the hinterland community.
[Extracted and Modified from OilNow]
