The possibility exists for Guyana to add a second gas pipeline as ExxonMobil and its partners make more and more discoveries offshore the South American country.
Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat said the government is considering heading this route during a forum at the Houston, Offshore Technology Conference on Tuesday.
The government is forging ahead with the gas-to-energy project, which will see a 12” pipeline transporting, at first, some 50 million standard cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of natural gas to onshore facilities from the offshore Liza field.
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The excess gas, according to Bharrat would be used in other industries i.e. fertiliser and petrochemicals. Bharrat said the government is anticipating the production of 100 mcf of natural gas daily.
“….50 mcf per day could have easily come through an 8’ pipeline but we [government] said we are going to put a 12’ pipeline which can take us to up 120 to 130 mcf per day,” he explained. The government’s move to increase the size of the pipeline was taken to accommodate more gas in the future.
But with further exploration on the cards which could lead to the discovery of even more gas, Bharrat outlined that a second pipeline may be needed.
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“The trend is… as you move closer to Suriname, we are finding more gas so we expect that as we move closer, our gas reserves will increase, and we might look at bringing a second pipeline to shore…” Mr. stated.
Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has said Guyana has 16 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves. Experts agree that this is expected to increase significantly as discoveries mount off the Guyana coast.
