Guyana Wednesday said it is prepared to build its own refinery less than 24 hours after Trinidad and Tobago said it is prepared to assist Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries further develop their oil and gas industries.
Port of Spain had also said it had taken a deliberate policy to engage its regional neighbors in the development of economic co-operation in the energy sector.
Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, addressing the opening of the Guyana’s International Energy Conference and Expo, told more than 1,200 delegates that crude oil which was once seen as being at the margins of the region has become a focal point with major discoveries in Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago.
But Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat, said the Irfaan Ali administration is keen on building its own refinery.
“We’re looking to build our own refinery in country,” he told reporters, adding, “we are trying to ensure that we are self-sufficient in terms of energy so that’s why we are moving towards setting up the refinery in country”.
Bharrat told the pro-government News Room publication that the government has already issued a Request for Proposals for a privately-owned 30,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in East Berbice-Corentyne and the administration will soon make a decision from the nine proposals received.
Bharrat said Guyana currently needs about 15,000 barrels of oil per day and with growing energy demand, it is believed that this 30,000-barrel-per-day refinery will suffice.
He said the country is keen on advancing natural gas cooperation with Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname, with the aim of monetizing that resource as well.
“Trinidad has the experience and the expertise as well too and quite honestly, we haven’t been focusing too much on gas.
“We have spent a lot of our time on oil, rightly so, because of the price of oil (but) because of the way the world is going, the demand for oil might not be long lasting but gas is seen as a transitional fuel,” Bharrat added.
Meanwhile in his address to the conference on Wednesday, Bharrat told delegates that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is establishing a system for real-time monitoring of the country’s forests in a similar manner to the way the government currently monitors oil and gas activities offshore.
CMC/
