The United States Export-Import Bank (EXIM) is working to take a loan request from Guyana for US$646 million, to its Board in October. This is according to the country’s Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo.
The funding is being pursued in support of Guyana’s Gas-to-Energy project, a landmark venture meant to pave the way for lower consumer electricity costs and greater value-added production.
Guyana’s Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Ashni Singh, recently met with officials of the Bank. “They have indicated that they have all of the information that they need to go to the board,” Jagdeo related from Singh.
The Vice President was at the time responding to public discourse over the wait for the Bank to approve the loan request which was made more than a year ago.
Guyana business group tells US EXIM bank detractors of gas project do not represent majority
Jagdeo said, “Anyone who has had a modicum, a tiny bit of experience with multilateral funding would know that before they go to their boards, they do their own due diligence on the project.”
He explained that EXIM had hired consultants to evaluate the environmental and technical feasibility of the project, and that those entities validated the soundness of the project on those fronts. He said the Bank has said it now has all the information needed to go to the Board.
“They’ve indicated they’re trying to make October. Then it has to be notified to the Congress for 35 days. Then it comes back to the EXIM Board, and then the loan is approved. That is how it works,” Jagdeo explained. He said the submission of the request to Congress is not for approval but is part of “operating procedures” to examine loan requests.
Work on the Gas-to-Energy project has not been delayed pending approval of the loan.
With or without U.S. Exim Bank loan, Guyana’s gas project to go ahead
Subsea7 said in a report on its operations in the second quarter, that installation of 119 kilometers of pipe to transport gas from ExxonMobil’s Liza field to an onshore facility was completed ahead of schedule. The pipeline installation, spearheaded by Exxon, has moved quickly, but first gas will have to wait for the government’s contractor to complete the construction of an onshore facility at Wales. LNDCH4, a joint venture of CH4 and Lindsayca, is constructing a 300-megawatt power plant and natural gas liquids processing plant. The integrated facility which will house these plants, will cost US$759 million. It is the main reason for Guyana’s loan request to the US EXIM Bank. So far, the government has been financing the project with withdrawals from its treasury.
Jagdeo said a fully composed arbitral panel is expected to visit in October to sort out some project related disagreements between government and the contractor.
First gas is expected in 2025.
Read more about the Gas-to-Energy project HERE.
