As discussions continue in the South American country of Guyana on the prospect of bringing gas to shore, the country’s Department of Energy said while this project could come on stream as early as 2023, the full volume of associated gas which has been found with large quantities of oil, is still to be determined.
Of the more than 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent discovered so far by ExxonMobil at the Stabroek Block, “about 6 billion of those are actually oil and about 2 billion would be gas which then has to be converted with a conversion factor of about 5.8 with regards to gas,” Dr. Mark Bynoe, Director of the Department of Energy told reporters on Monday.
“What I could say however, is that it is still very early days with regards to determining how much gas is actually there,” he said, pointing out that most of the finds have been disclosed based on a single well that has been drilled.
“We all can appreciate that this is very complex, and it also requires a lot more appraisal before one can be able to determine precisely how much is there,” he said.
While the priority, as outlined in the Production Sharing Agreement between Guyana and ExxonMobil is oil recovery, focus is also being placed on piping gas to shore to generate electricity.
The cost of electricity in the South American country is considerably high and has served as a barrier to the growth and expansion of enterprise – particularly those in the manufacturing sector. Officials have been looking at cheaper ways to generate power. This has seen ongoing discussions taking place with the US oil major about the prospect of taking gas to shore.
