…final cost still unknown- Winston Brassington
Kaieteur News- The first phase of the US$2B Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project has been further delayed to 2026.
This is according to Head of the GTE Taskforce, Winston Brassington. On Wednesday, while providing local energy updates at the Guyana Energy Conference, hosted at the Guyana Marriott Hotel, Georgetown, Brassington provided delegates of the conference with a progress report on the various components of the project.
In his 30-minute-long presentation, he explained that while the project has a contractual timeline of the second quarter of this year, realistically, this can be delayed to the first half of 2026.
Brassington noted that the pipeline element, constructed by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) has been completed, with nitrogen pumped into the structure as it awaits completion of the other components.
With regard to the Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) and 300-megawatt powerplant he explained, “Contractually this is scheduled to be delivered in the second half of this year but we have seen a schedule that suggests this is going to take longer- so contractually this year, realistically we’re looking at some delays and a lot of this is, some of these matters are in dispute and therefore I can’t speak about it at this point.”
According to his visual presentation, the final cost of the two plants is “to be determined,” in light of the ongoing disputes with the joint venture contractor, Lindsayca/CH4.
Although the cost is still to be finalized, Brassington maintained that the project will deliver more reliable and cheaper electricity to the country at a selling cost of US12 cents, down from US 24-30 cents. He revealed that earlier this year, Cabinet approved a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between the Guyana Power and Gas Inc (GPGI) and the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) at US 5 cents per Kilowatt hour (KWh).
With the completion of the two gas plants, being constructed at Wales, West Bank Demerara, not likely to come on stream before the end of this year as promised by government, the commitment to reduce electricity costs by 50% this year is also delayed.
In a separate presentation at the Energy Conference, President of EMGL, Alistair Routledge confirmed that the company is ready to deliver gas onshore through the pipeline.
Meanwhile, with regard to the transmission lines and substations to support the project, Brassington reported that they are expected to be completed in the first and second quarter of this year, respectively. Some 85 kilometers of 230 KV and 69 KV lines are being constructed, while three new substations are being built, and two being upgraded. To date, he said 87% of the transmission lines are completed, while 62% of the work has been done on the substations. Additionally, work on the National Control Center is also expected to wrap up by the second quarter of 2025.
Deliverables
Upon completion, Brassington explained that Guyana will be earning revenue from both the NGL and power plant. “In this project we have two key areas of revenue- one is the NGL plant, what we call the liquids, the cooking gas, so the butane, the pentane plus. We’ll have for the liquids over 63 million gallons per annum- that’s about 4,100 barrels of liquids per day,” he said, adding that the country currently uses less than 1,000 barrels daily. These products will therefore be exported as a “key revenue earner” according to him.
On the power plant, he noted that all of the gas from phase one will be used for power generation, which will reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels and need for heavy fuel oil (HFO) for power generation, thereby saving the country revenue.
(Completion of Wales gas plants further delayed to 2026)
Original link posted by Kaieteur News on February 21, 2025
