The Wales Gas to Shore Project continues to be shrouded in mystery

DEAREDITOR,

Yesterday’s disclosure thatExxonwillbeselling50 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to the government is a startling revelationandcontrarytothe PPP’s previous public commitment regarding the financing and feasibility of the Wales Gas to Shore project.

During a public briefing to address concerns regarding the Wales gas to shore project, President Ali announced that “The gas comes to the people free of cost”(Nocostyetforgas-toshoreproject–SNJune30th 2022), however Exxon has nowinformedthenationthat we will be paying that companyforourowngas.

During the embryonic discussionwithExxononthe possibilityofbringinggasto shore for the purpose of power generation, the Coalition administration informed the company in no uncertain terms, that any agreement which would entail Guyana having to pay forthenaturalgas,wouldnot beacceptable.

At that time, our reasons were: a) that the associated gas was indigenous (ah we own)andb)linkingtheprice of our natural gas to the international market would not provide the level of energy security required for the country, since external events (such as the current Ukraine war) could adversely influence the internationalpriceofnatural gas, which would result in Guyana paying a premium price for its own gas. The Coalition’sdiscussionswere centered on the capital cost for the pipeline as well as costs associated with operations and maintenance of the pipeline It now appears that the PPP has made a complete U-turn on thisposition.

The details surrounding the Wales Gas to Shore project are shrouded in mystery - the reasoning for the selection of the current location has yet to be disclosed, the final project costshaveyettobepublicly disclosed, even more worrying that we are now informedthatExxonisyetto make a Final Investment Decision (FID) on the project, the final tariff to consumersforanyelectricity procured is still unknown, the full technical details including the proposed connection to our fragile t r a n s m i s s i o n a n d distribution network are unclear,theroleofthenewly formed Guyana Power and GasInc.isunknown.

In fact, only a select few