An Oil and Gas Master Plan developed by the Mitsubishi and Chiyoda Corporations in collaboration with the Government of Japan provides a technical review of the use of petroleum and its by-products in Guyana and the South American country’s move towards renewables.
Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman told OilNOW in a recent interview that the plan does not focus on policy in the country’s petroleum sector but on technical issues such as refining of crude and use of natural gas by-products.
“It’s more of a technical review. How much to we refine, what do we do with the derivatives from natural gas – for example LPG, cooking gas, ammonia for fertilizers – how do we weave that into our renewables; by what date should we be coming on stream with hydro-plants. So it’s more of a technical plan than one that is policy-based,” he said.
The plan was submitted in March to Guyana’s President, David Granger. Key objectives include; the development of Guyana’s domestic oil industry, the creation of a balance in the domestic usage and exportation of products from indigenous oil and gas, the harmonization of the industry in keeping with Guyana’s ‘green’ development agenda and the quantifying of the economic feasibility of the plan.
“This is the final report presented. They have had discussions with Finance, Public Infrastructure and Natural Resources. It remains now for us to conclude our examination of that final report and then to respond to the Government of Japan. We will probably, within the next fortnight respond to them saying that we have looked at the report and now that we are ready to go forward, we would like them to fund the preparation of detailed economic feasibility studies for each of the projects and then we will see what they come up with,” Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge said at the time the plan was submitted.
The Government of Japan is funding the technical work, which also includes the creation of a road-map towards balancing Guyana’s oil and gas future with its ‘green’ development agenda.
