-President Ali discloses

GUYANA is moving full speed ahead with monetising its natural gases and, already, the company, Fulcrum LNG Inc., is being considered as a possible partner to achieve this goal, President Dr. Irfaan Ali disclosed to reporters on Thursday last during a press conference at State House in Georgetown, his official residence.

The U.S.-based energy company was selected from among 17 proposals submitted.
The President said, “That company with the government of Guyana and Exxon as partners will now have to have discussions and we will now have to, together, arrive at a model and a plan as to how we’ll advance this major gas development in our country.”

He added, “For us, the Government of Guyana, the technical team has been assembled. We have identified a technical team to work with the stakeholders in coming up with the model and to negotiate an agreement and look at the viability – technically and financially – of the project.”

Notably, the government has made it clear that it has a clear strategy for advancing investment in gas development and, earlier this year, the government launched the Request For Proposals (RFPs) for the designing, financing, construction and operation of the required gas infrastructure.

According to the RFP, the requirements include the developer’s capability and credibility to execute such a project, clear written agreements among the parties, and if a consortium, evidence of consortium agreement for this project, the site plan for the project, a summarised and detailed project schedule, the project costs, the project structure diagram, business plan, list of legal agreements and the proposed capital structure.
It was also stated that this project will be strictly financed and owned 100 per cent by the private sector.

In February this year at the opening day of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo, President Ali firmly stated that “the time to develop our gas is now.”
“In addition to the current and future oil development in Guyana, the Government of Guyana has made the strategic choice of developing all of its gas resources in a timely manner to maximise the economic benefit associated with such development,” President Ali had said.

He said, too, that the government was also working on substituting fossil fuels, such as diesel, to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon energy platform.
The Head of State, however, reminded stakeholders that “time is of the essence” owing to market forces and uncertainties.

“There is an immediate window of opportunity between now and the end of the decade to monetise and maximise the value of Guyana’s natural gas resources; the time to develop our gas is now!” Dr. Ali emphasised.
The President then went on to say, “New infrastructural solutions in Guyana to develop and monetise our natural gas will undoubtedly support our CARICOM brothers and sisters, and friends in Latin America to attain energy security whereby Guyana will be uniquely positioned as a regional energy hub.”

Referring to another one of the nation’s revolutionary developments, the Gas-to-Energy project, which will see Guyana’s gas resources being utilised in a manner that will usher in massive development, Dr. Ali said, “We have already seen that that second phase of gas coming in will have to support a second power plant that is based on the interest, just interest in manufacturing, industrial development…”
For context, Phase Two associated gas is planned to be utilised for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production, depending on the capacity.