Guyana gas and power project scores 12 bids

Trinidad’s gas company and 11 others from places such as Brazil, United States and China are chasing business in Guyana, and have put in pre-qualifying bids to add a gas-fired plant and develop additional capacity for the power grid.

The US$900-million gas-to-energy project will land the pipeline in the Wales Development Zone.

The Ministry of Natural Resources said the 12 pre-qualifying bids from local, regional and international firms included the US-based Amerapex Corporation; National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago; Brazilian company Constutora Queiroz Galva; China Machinery Engineering Cooperation; Power China International Group; China Energy International Guyana Company Limited; CEPCOII Electric Power; CH4 Guyana Incorporated; Lyndsayca Incorporated; Apan Energy; Wison Offshore and Marine Limited; and Tecnicas Reunidas.

Guyana’s plans for a power plant and NGL, or natural gas liquids plant, were formerly separate projects, but the government said that guided by findings of substantial savings from combining the two facilities by Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, EEPGL, the local subsidiary of US oil giant ExxonMobil Corp, it opted to combine them.

“As such, notwithstanding that the government of Guyana has separately received expressions of interest in September 2021 that included the power plant, and that EEPGL had separately pre-qualified firms for the NGL plant, the decision to combine the power and NGL plants necessitated that all interested parties be invited to submit or resubmit information,” it said.

The scope of the project includes a combined-cycle, multi-fuel power plant to generate up to 300MW of electricity, of which a net 250MW will be delivered to Guyana Power and Light. It includes a 230KV substation and backup fuel capacity, as well as the natural gas plant.

The power plant will be done in two phases of 150MW each.

The gas pipeline will extend 225 kilometres from the Liza area, where the natural gas is produced, and land at the Wales Development Zone. Wales was selected for the landing facility from among 20 potential locations.

“The project will see the establishment of a gas-processing plant and a natural gas liquids facility, capable of producing at least 4,000 barrels per day, including the fractionation, or separating out, of liquefied petroleum gas,” the ministry said.

Guyana said EEPGL has guaranteed the government that a minimum of 50 million standard cubic feet of gas per day will be transported through the pipeline by 2024, and that the pipeline would have a maximum capacity of 130 million cubic feet.

CMC