US loan or not, Govt. will build Wales gas-to shore project – Jagdeo

Jun 07, 2024 News

Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana will be going ahead to build the Gas to Shore project with or without the approval of the loan it applied for from the United States Export Import Bank (US EXIM Bank). The revelation was made by the Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo at his weekly press conference, on Thursday at the Office of the President (OP).

The VP was asked by the media to give an update on the current state of the talks in relation to the loan’s approval and at which stage it was at currently. He informed the reporters present that the issue was being dealt with by the embassy in the US. Jagdeo explained that, “The last report I got from Ashni Singh they have been dealing with this from our Embassy there is that it’s being prepared at the technical level.  They came they did the environmental assessment on their own so that was a good thing that they came because of the attempt by these local people linking up with foreign NGO’s to try to block it.”

He said that when the report is finished from the independent assessment it will go the board, though he does not have a direct time frame, he estimated that this should be done in a month or two. “I don’t know exactly when but I believe maybe a month or two, I have to find out from Ashni. I didn’t follow up on that. But right now the project is going forward and we are paying for it. We are paying for it from our resources.  So it’s moving forward so we are not desperate (or) at a point where we have to stop this project because the loan is not coming through and we have a number of alternatives too,” he added.

It was recently reported that 16,000 Americans wrote a letter to the Chairman of the US EXIM Bank, demanding that it does not fund the Gas to Energy (GTE) project that the Guyanese Government is currently pursuing. It was revealed that the government had applied for the US$646M loan since April of last year to support the Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility and the 300-megawatt gas-fired power plant- two components of the venture. Fast forward over a year later there has been no approval.

According to a letter from 16,452 members of Friends of the Earth United States, a non-governmental organization, the project is both a disaster for Guyana and the climate. They said, “This project is both a disaster for Guyana and the climate! The U.S. government should not be using taxpayer dollars to subsidize Exxon – a company that has recently reported billions in profits.”

Jagdeo during a press conference in October last year had said that the loan has not yet been approved, but government is confident that the green light will be given soon. To this end, he explained, “If there is need for, we can have bridge financing until that comes on stream and from what I gather, the loan can fund retroactive expenditure so if you have bridge financing then you can go back and clear it easily once the loan comes on stream.”

Jagdeo told reporters that President Irfaan Ali met with the President of the US-EXIM Bank during a visit to the United States and had “really good discussions”. A damning international report by the  Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) released since October 2023 highlighted that solar is a cheaper alternative to the US$1.8B Gas-to-Energy (GTE) however, the Government of Guyana (GoG) is yet to provide any evidence to refute these findings and is instead pushing ahead with the controversial project.

• build, EXIM, gas-to-energy, Jagdeo, loan