Guyana’s sights are set much higher than just being the new oil darling of the Western hemisphere. It wants to be the gas darling too.
That’s the frame coming out of Georgetown as Guyana lines up a second gas pipeline project, even before the first one is fully online.
President Irfaan Ali said a new gas development at Berbice will be finalized very soon, aimed at bringing more associated gas from ExxonMobil’s offshore fields to shore. The first gas-to-shore pipeline is expected to start up later this year, supplying roughly 300 megawatts to a new power plant near the capital. For a country long plagued by high power costs and periodic blackouts, this goes well beyond being a side project.
Guyana’s oil boom has been nothing short of staggering. Since Exxon’s 2015 discovery, output has surged and the country has become one of the fastest-growing producers in the world. But crude exports don’t automatically create factories, processing plants or tech hubs. They create revenue. What you do with it is another matter.
Ali’s argument is that gas is the bridge. Instead of exporting everything offshore, Guyana wants to use its associated gas to anchor manufacturing, agri-processing and potentially petrochemicals. He’s also floated partnering with neighboring Suriname on the second project to scale it beyond a purely domestic build.
Exxon says it is committed to moving quickly on gas development, but it has also been blunt that gas is more complicated than oil. Upstream chief Dan Ammann said the offshore pipeline infrastructure is ready, but onshore power plants, permitting and market frameworks need to advance in parallel. In short, the company will invest as the regulatory and commercial pieces fall into place.
This is where ambition meets execution. Guyana is trying to convert an oil windfall into a broader industrial base while capital and political momentum are still strong. That window does not stay open forever.
The molecules are there. The revenue is there. The question now is whether the build-out on land can keep pace with what’s already happening offshore.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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