-120-day timeline set for completion of foundations, preparations underway for some 400 additional workers to speed up work

WORK on the landmark Gas-to-Energy (GtE) project is expected to be ramped up in the coming weeks to ensure that the promise of reduced energy costs to the populace is delivered soonest.

This was disclosed during a site visit, led by Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips and Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, Deodat Indar, following the first meeting of the new cabinet held on Monday.

According to the Prime Minister, the project is perhaps the most important one for the people of Guyana and as such, the government is focused on delivering it to the people of the country during the latter part of 2026.

“The people of Guyana will be benefitting from electricity at a reduced cost from this project, and as you can see during the tour here, we are happy that work is progressing nicely at this site,” he said.

He noted that he was happy to be provided with a progress report and, as such, was given the assurance from the contractor, Lindsayca, that they will ramp up the work on site.

Meanwhile, Minister Indar stated that they were able to ask the contractor a number of questions.

Providing a detailed breakdown of the progress made, he stated that the foundation for the natural gas liquids facility and the foundation for the gas turbines, are being built.

Most recently, the foundation was poured for the first one, and the second foundation will be poured in another week. This will continue until the foundations for all turbines are complete.

“It’s a simple cycle, which is the gas element with the four turbines. Each one [sic] of them I understand is 57 MW, so together all four of those will be 228 MW. Then the steam will add the remainder to bring it to 300MW,” he said.

With this, he said that the contractors have provided a presentation of the schedule and how they will approach the construction progress.

“They’ve said to us by year-end the foundations for all components will be finished, and then you have the other aspects of the plant,” Indar added.

The minister noted, “The first task of the day is for us to come here to make sure that we communicate to the contractor that we want the plant to finish in 2026, so that the benefit of reduced cost can be felt by every Guyanese, can be felt by the manufacturers that [sic] have been eagerly awaiting this [for] a lifetime.”

The project, he said, remains on top of the priority list of projects that the government intends to complete.

As part of the project, Lindsayca officials disclosed that they have implemented a 120-day schedule to complete the foundation works for the turbines the end of the year.

According to official Ruben Figuera, this timeline was set to bring the project up to speed with the civil works among other things to prepare for the installations of turbines and other aspects of the project.

He told the PM, minister and other officials that they have acquired 90,000 metres of steel pipes to be installed in all the areas that are already on site.

The project encompasses two steam turbines and four gas turbines and the foundation for these should be completed by December. Further to this, it was added that by the end of the year, they should be ready to install all the major equipment.

Meanwhile, as part of the ramping up of works, construction is moving apace on a ‘man camp’ which will cater for an additional 400 workers to be on site, working in various shifts to aid in timely completion of the project.

Already, there are talks to further increase the workers on site to some 700 workers, to be able to complete the project in keeping with the required timeline.