— Rystad Vice-President hails gas-to-energy project as ‘absolutely necessary’ for Guyana

DESCRIBING Guyana’s gas-to-energy project as “absolutely necessary”, Senior Vice-President and Head of Latin America for Rystad Energy, Schreiner Parker, said that the project can only change Guyana for the better, given the wide range of benefits it will bring.

Parker shared these remarks on Wednesday during a press conference where he presented his company’s most recent study on “Guyana’s Upstream Industry and Country Benchmarking Update”.  He noted that just like oil, Guyana has tremendous natural gas resources.

The natural gas being referred to is the gas being generated at the Liza Phase One and Liza Phase Two projects, currently operating offshore Guyana in the Stabroek block.
Currently, only a limited amount of the gas is being used to power generators on the offshore vessels while most of the gas is being reinjected back into the wells. A small amount is also being flared, meaning it is being burnt.

According to Parker, utilising that resource wisely, as in the case of Guyana’s gas-to-energy project, is a prudent decision.
“I think the gas-to-energy project is necessary in terms of how you utilise the natural gas that is associated to the oil production at the Liza [project] because you’re never going to be in a position where you can just flare the gas and there’s a certain point where you don’t want to reinject more gas, so what to do?” Parker noted.

Rystad Energy is an independent energy research and business intelligence company providing data, analytics and consultancy services to clients exposed to the energy industry across the globe. Schreiner has been working with Rystad since January 2016.

Guyana’s planned gas-to-energy project is set to see piping of natural gas onshore from the Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels at the Liza Phase One and Liza Phase Two projects.
Also referred to as the gas-to-shore project, the Government conceptualised the venture to see the gas being brought onshore to a natural gas liquid (NGL) and natural gas processing (NGP) plant, which will be located at Hermitage, part of the Wales Development Zone (WDZ).  The project is expected to come on stream as soon as 2024.

The pipeline is expected to transport up to approximately 50 million standard cubic feet per day (MSCFD) of dry gas to the NGL Plant. Once operational, the project is expected to have a lifespan of approximately 25 years.
The power plant is set to generate as much as 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity, which is expected to cut Guyana’s electricity cost by more than half and create a boom in the manufacturing sector.

“Bringing it back to shore is going to fundamentally change the industry here in Guyana by lowering, by more than half, the price of electricity. Guyana can then use that to expand its manufacturing base to become an industrial hub. You can even create a free trade zone, a duty-free zone. There’s a lot of things that you can do once you have that gas-to-power project in place, but I think that it’s absolutely necessary and it will change Guyana for the better,” Parker related.

According to reports, when factors such as savings on fuel import, reduction in energy cost and savings for the manufacturing sector are considered, Guyana could save as much as US$3 billion (GUY$653 billion) through the gas-to-shore energy project within the first five years of it coming on stream.

In addition to use in electricity generation, there will still be a surplus of gas which can then be used to supply the cooking gas industry as well. It is estimated that Guyana could generate between $70 million to $100 million from the sale of cooking gas.