Criticisms against feasibility of gas-to-energy project ‘unfair’ – Vice President

Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, MP, has said it is unfair that persons would claim that there are no studies on the feasibility of the gas-to-energy project.

This was in response to questions from journalist, Neil Marks on News Room’s Insider.

The Vice President said the fact that a person does not know about the feasibility studies does not mean that they do not exist.

“A person who doesn’t have a modicum of interest or even knowledge about a particular sector, technical knowledge, can get up one day and challenge the engineer and say, ‘this is not good’, and then he gets traction. And then suddenly, a petition comes about stop the project.”

The gas-to-energy project will cut the cost of power by 50 per cent, putting more disposable income into the pockets of ordinary Guyanese and foster a more attractive business environment.

“The basic numbers are, if you’re generating using bunkersee at 14 cents per kwh now, and we can bring in the pipeline and the gas, we can build the pipeline, bring in the gas, build the power plant and pay back for those, and still generate power at 6 to 7 cents per kwh. Then, we are saving 50 per cent of the generating cost.”

The Vice President said those numbers are substantiated globally, and that any person who examine them would see that the project is a ‘no-brainer’.

He also pointed out that the gas is less polluting. This has been demonstrated in the studies published by the Government.

Dr. Jagdeo had met with publishers of Guyana’s leading newspapers, as well as other media houses in April to discuss the gas-to-energy project, as the Government noticed some reports were uninformed.

During that meeting, the Government pointed to several studies on the gas-to-energy project which were done under the previous administration.

The Government made these studies available to the media, and published them for public perusal. They are available on the website of the Department of Public Information and the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Petroleum Management Programme.

“We live in a free country and we encourage public participation in debate on big projects,” Dr. Jagdeo said.

However, he noted that those debates must take place on technical issues.