–Jagdeo says; questions extent to which opposition party is willing to go to fabricate more untruths

THE US EXIM Bank’s recent landmark approval of a loan to support Guyana’s gas-to-energy project has further exposed the extent to which the Alliance For Change (AFC) would go to fabricate untruths to score “cheap political points,” General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo has said.

The PPP/C General Secretary, during a press conference at Freedom House on Friday, pointed out how the AFC had lied about the status of loan approval for the gas-to-energy project.
Although the loan approval is a positive development, the PPP/C General Secretary did not hesitate to grill the detractors of development who were attempting to feed Guyanese untruths.
Addressing the statements emanating from the AFC, he said: “This approval is positive, but it is also demonstrative of the extent of the lies that the AFC would tell, saying that this project was not approved and would never be approved and bring that to the Guyanese public in a situation where it could be easily proven otherwise.”

He went on to say: “This approval is positive and also demonstrative of the extent of the lies that the AFC would tell.”
Lamenting the seriousness of this action by the AFC, the PPP General Secretary went on to say: “If you can lie to such an extent in such a set of circumstances, how many other lies would you tell or issues you would fabricate to score cheap political points?”
While underscoring that this is typical of the opposition, especially the AFC, Jagdeo said the lies are in a “pathological manner.”

Further, he said that the government will be able to recover expenses it has already incurred since the project started, due to the retroactive financing included in the EXIM Bank’s funding.
Jagdeo also said that the EXIM Bank loan only represents around 25 per cent of the project’s total cost and the remaining portion of the project is funded by local funds and a unique agreement with ExxonMobil.
On Thursday, the Board of Directors at the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) approved more than US$526 million to the Ministry of Finance of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana to support a gas-to-energy project.

Together with CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited and Hess Guyana Exploration, its co-venture partners on the Stabroek Block, ExxonMobil Guyana is working with the Government of Guyana to advance the gas-to-energy project.
The gas-to-energy project will see a 200km 12-inch diameter pipeline channelling natural gas from the Liza Phase One and Liza Phase Two FPSOs to a power plant NGL facility that will be built in Wales, West Bank Demerara (WBD).

That pipeline will be landing on the West Coast of Demerara (WCD) shore and continue approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL and power plant facilities.
The project which is estimated to cost US$1.8 billion, is expected to be up and running by the first half of 2025.