Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 08, 2018 News
What will the project cost? Will it address Guyana’s needs? Will it be reliable? Will we be able to avoid the hardships endured by other countries that chose this route? Are our current generators capable of using gas and how much would it cost to modify or buy new ones?
According to Attorney at Law, Charles Ramson, until those and other pertinent questions are answered, Government has no business “selling dreams” to the people of Guyana. Ramson was speaking about the gas to power project being touted by the government.
He said that the government seems to be playing guessing games with the future of Guyana as it is going full speed ahead into a project without a feasibility study being done.
“We heard earlier in the week that the Guyana Power and Light needs US $110M to end blackouts. Then we heard that the gas to shore project is ‘feasible’. Then minister (of Public Infrastructure,) David Patterson even said that he will ‘go out on a limb’ and announce that electricity will be cheaper than 10 cents per kWh. This is all crazy,” said Ramson.
Ramson said that while there has been announcements that the project is feasible, ExxonMobil is being quoted in sections of the media as recent as yesterday saying that no the study to assess whether there will be excess associated gas is yet to be completed.
He said that if a feasibility study was done then the Minister would have been able to quote exact figures and there would have been no need for him to “go out on a limb.”
Ramson also noted that ExxonMobil has first dibs to use for keeping the reservoir under the required pressure.
Further, Ramson said that even if ExxonMobil finds that there is enough associated gas to bring to shore, Guyana still needs to be wary of the cost that can be attached to such an undertaking.
“How much will it cost to build the gas pipeline? And how does the government plan to meet the extra supply needed for your base load power immediately? These are all questions that need to be answered before government can tell the nation that this project is well on the way,” said Ramson.
Ramson said that it is also important that the government find out the possibilities of the people of Guyana having to endure days or even weeks of power outage in the early stages of the gas to power project. He noted that this is not far-fetched as it has been experienced by other countries.
Ghana’s power supply crisis tormented the people of that nation for quite some time. That country was relying on a gas to power project as well. Ghana power supply experienced a critical power crisis during the load-shedding activities structured to between 300MW and 400MW of power.
The activities allowed the end power users to access power for 12hours and be denied power for 24hours.
Ramson pointed to one instant where a Floating Production Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO) at the Jubilee field in Ghana experienced unexpected shutdown. The Tullow Oil Ghana Company had declared unproductive processing of gas at the Atuabo gas plant. This led to power deficit to rise to 600MW compared to previous record which was at 400MW.
Ramson said that while gas use has its advantages, there are also many disadvantages. “I there is a problem with an FPSO, we can go without electricity; even the water levels and tides can pose a problem,” said Ramson.
Ramson also noted that the gas to power project cannot be realized before oil starts pumping “The government is still to tell us what it plans to do about electricity in the interim. The demand for electricity will multiply as we see many more expatriates come into the country. For one thing, the use of air conditioning will definitely increase.”
Ramson also questioned, “And how does the gas to shore power project marry with the commitment President Granger made to have 100% of our electricity supply come from renewable energy by 2025?”
He said that the government needs to be more responsible in its pronouncements and stop making “loose and premature statements.”
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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