Stabroek Block operator, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), has indicated that there will be a potential increase in demand for lodging in the Georgetown area as work on its development projects come on stream.
This was specifically noted in the company’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Yellowtail Project which is scheduled for start-up by 2026 and would produce between 250,000 to 300,000 barrels of oil per day.
The document notes that as of mid-2019, the demand for hotel rooms in Georgetown by EEPGL and its primary support companies averaged a total of 600 rooms per month, for an average stay of 2.5 nights per booking. The hotels (some of which are “EEPGL-approved”) most commonly rented by EEPGL staff and many of its primary support companies include Guyana Marriott Hotel, Grand Coastal Hotel, Pegasus Hotel Guyana, Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel, Kings Hotel and Residences, Cara Lodge, and Herdmanston Lodge.
OilNOW understands that the Grand Coastal Hotel has been fully booked by EEPGL in recent months to provide holdover lodging for its offshore workers. To address accommodation needs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, workers from EEPGL and service companies are currently occupying much of the Marriott hotel.
The EIA said the average stay for offshore workers, which make up a majority of the demand (more than 400 rooms per month), is one night per month. The remainder of the lodging demand is for company management and staff visiting Georgetown for a short duration, usually no more than five nights per stay, and typically on the order of one trip per month.
During 2020 and 2021, EEPGL said it used several hotels (including the Marriott, Grand Coastal, and Cara Lodge) as staging areas for crew changes and isolation prior to going offshore to ensure safe operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further to this, EEPGL noted that its typical monthly demand of 600 rooms, with a maximum of 200 beds in demand by EEPGL or its primary support companies at any one time constitutes approximately 37 percent of the 577-bed capacity of the aforementioned five Georgetown hotels used by EEPGL and its primary support companies.
With Exxon poised to bring 10 oil ships downstream in this decade, there is no doubt that the foregoing demand for lodging facilities in Guyana will increase.
In preparation for this growing demand, the government through the Guyana Office for Foreign and Local Investment published a call last year for the Expression of Interests for the construction of hotels in Guyana. In November 2020, agreements were signed for the development of four hotels in Region 4.
Among the intended hotel projects are an $18 billion GYD ($90 million USD) Hilton Garden Inn at Houston/Mc Doom (East Bank Demerara), a Delta Hotels Marriott near the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, an H-Towers luxury hotel in New Providence (on the East Bank), and a SureStay Plus Hotel by Best Western (in the city center).
On Wednesday, a sod turning ceremony was held at a Providence, East Bank Demerara site earmarked for the construction of a US$32 million Hyatt Place Georgetown hotel.
The project, which adds to a long line of hotels coming to the new oil producing South American country to meet growing demand, is spearheaded by SIR Investments Inc., an investor from Trinidad and Tobago.
