Guyana’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said Phase 2 of the Gas-to-Energy project can be completed in two years.
“We believe that [two years] is an outside limit,” he said during a press conference in Georgetown on September 26, following the publication of a government notice inviting proposals for Phase 2 of the project.
Phase 1 of the Gas-to-Energy project consists of a 300-megawatt (MW) power plant and a natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation plant, currently being constructed at Wales on the West bank of the Demerara River, in partnership with ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil has installed a pipeline that runs from the Liza field offshore Guyana to the Wales site. The pipeline has a capacity to transport about 130 million cubic feet of gas per day (mcf/d), but Phase I of the project will only use approximately 50 mcf/d.
Phase 2 of the project is intended to utilize an additional 75 mcf/d, also supplied by ExxonMobil from offshore fields. This phase will include the construction of another power plant with a capacity of 250 MW and an additional NGL plant. The infrastructure for Phase 2 is intended to be located next to the Phase 1 facilities at Wales.
Phase 1 is expected to be completed in 2025. With an estimated development time of two years, Phase 2 could be completed by 2026 or 2027, depending on when the government awards a contract—potentially in 2024 or 2025. This timeline positions Phase 2 as a replacement for the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP), which has faced delays. The AFHP was originally intended to deliver 165 MW of hydropower by 2027, but difficulties in reaching a financial agreement led to the withdrawal of the last contractor in 2022.
Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL), the state electricity utility, has pushed back the assumed commissioning date of the AFHP to 2029, a two-year delay. Vice President Jagdeo confirmed that Phase 2 of the Gas-to-Energy Project will serve to provide the power needed to compensate for the AFHP delay. He emphasized that there is urgency to meet the rising power demand due to Guyana’s rapidly growing economy and the need for additional power.
“Trust me, our demand, the pace at which we are going and changing in this country, after phase two, we’ll probably need more power in another couple of years. The growth in demand for power is unbelievable,” the Vice President stated.
Concerning AFHP, while the government received four bids in early 2024, no contractor has been selected yet. Vice President Jagdeo has said the government will either engage one of the bidders or seek new bids.
