Wales Gas-to-Energy project at implementation stage – Min. Bharrat

Work on the Wales Gast-to-Energy project along the West Bank of Demerara continues to move swiftly for a 2024 commencement, as the project is already in its implementation phase.

Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, made the disclosure during a televised programme ‘The Guyana Dialogue,’ Thursday evening.

The government has already awarded two contracts: the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract for the Natural Gas Liquids plant and the 300 Mega-Watt CCGT power plant, while the other contract has been awarded to Engineers India Limited (EIL) for the rendering of project management consultancy services, to ensure the country gets value for its money.

“The contract has been awarded by Exxon to several companies for the laying of the pipeline, and bringing it straight into Wales. The early works on the sites have advanced significantly by Exxon and the contractors, so we will be ready to deliver this project by the end of 2024,” Minister Bharrat disclosed.

Job creation

A number of private cane farmers in Wales were left without a livelihood under the previous administration, following the closure of the Wales Sugar Estate in 2016.

Minister Bharrat highlighted that the government’s decision to build the pipeline in Wales is guided by an agenda to create jobs in the area.

The establishment of the pipeline will provide a new market for these farmers, as government plans to build out a manufacturing industrial park around the power plant.

“We need to build out a manufacturing sector. It will create so many jobs for Guyanese. In that area, we have so many young people in need of jobs,” he underscored.

“We are taking it to Wales because… people are living there that need jobs. The second reason is that the land is available. This project, in the long term, is not only about the power plant. It is about what will happen around those two plants. That is the vision we have, to build out probably one of the largest manufacturing industrial parks to create employment,” the natural resources minister added.

Reliability on fossil fuels

Reiterating that the Gas-to-Energy project is a game-changer for Guyana, the natural resources minister said the country’s reliability on fossil fuels, as well as the cost of electricity will reduce significantly.

The project includes the construction of a natural gas pipeline and processing plant that will convert the natural gas into electricity through a process known as gas-to-power.

Part of the project will see a natural gas liquid plant being built, which will be responsible for separating the natural gas liquids from the natural gas stream and refining them into high-value products such as cooking gas and gasoline.

Importantly, the project will see Guyana transitioning to a cheaper and more sustainable natural gas reserve.

A 200-kilometre pipeline will transport gas from the Liza Phase One and Liza Phase Two Floating Production Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to the Natural Gas power plant that is being constructed at Wales.