By Kemol King
The Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo has, over the years, become a barometer of where the country’s oil and gas sector is headed. Last week, while oil remained part of the discussion, it was clear that attention is shifting decisively toward natural gas and what it could mean for Guyana’s next phase of petroleum-driven development.
With more than 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent discovered offshore and multiple projects producing ahead of schedule, the offshore oil model is familiar. ExxonMobil proposes a new project, the government reviews and approves, a project takes a few years to develop, and one day, crude starts being sold in a competitive global market. Gas, however, can be a very different proposition.
At the conference, ExxonMobil officials said the company is ready to develop Guyana’s gas resources.
For years, President Irfaan Ali has been saying that Exxon should move faster on the gas. But the officials also underscored the structural reality, that gas projects require demand, downstream industries, and clarity in the regulatory environment.
The Wales Gas-to-Energy project , which is already underway, helps demonstrate this point. Phase one will see approximately 50 million cubic feet per day (mcf/d) of gas transported from the Liza field to Wales on the West Bank of Demerara, feeding a 300-megawatt power plant and natural gas liquids (NGL) facility, starting this year. Phase two, for which the government has received bids to build plants, would increase flows by about 90 mcf/d, tied in part to future production from the Hammerhead project, earmarked for startup in 2029.
The Wales project required onshore infrastructure to justify it, but what is expected to come later for Berbice is far grander.
Exxon’s broader vision, first outlined during last year’s conference and refined this year, contemplates a far larger industrial ecosystem in Berbice. Exxon’s proposed Longtail gas development alone is expected to produce around 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas, a volume that dwarfs what Wales will initially consume. Additional supply from the southeast gas area, expected to form the basis of a larger project, would further expand that potential. There will need to be a pipeline to transport that gas to Berbice.
Absorbing such volumes of gas requires massive investment. The vision for Berbice includes energy-intensive industries such as alumina processing, fertilizer production, data centres and additional power generation infrastructure. The government has also been advancing plans for a deepwater port in collaboration with Bechtel, positioning the region as a future industrial hub.
At the conference, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat told Reuters that several companies had signaled interest in investing in the Berbice industrial buildout. That investor interest, if converted into formal commitments, would be major. This is where a lot of the responsibility shifts more decisively onto the state. ExxonMobil has already demonstrated its capacity to execute complex offshore projects efficiently, including the completion of the offshore pipeline on time in 2024. The government will now work to pull off the legal and regulatory buildout necessary to make the Berbice onshore vision work.
A Natural Gas Bill is expected to come before Parliament this year. That legislation is expected to establish the framework for the downstream industry. President Irfaan Ali has expressed his desire to see Guyana’s gas industry development underway before he leaves office in 2031.
For years, the Guyana Energy Conference has been attended largely by executives, policymakers and investors, who are positioned on the top of the pecking order of beneficiaries from industries endowed with such massive wealth. But the implications of a gas-driven industrial economy extend far beyond conference halls. For Berbice residents in particular, the stakes are significant. The county, long seeking renewed economic momentum, could one day become the main character in the country’s boom story.
