Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has indicated that the Guyana Government hopes to tap the revered expertise of Qatar in developing the 17 trillion cubic feet of gas resources unlocked in the ExxonMobil-operated Stabroek Block.
In the global gas arena, Qatar is considered a power house. Its state-owned firm, Qatargas, is characterized as a unique global energy operator in terms of size, service and reliability. The company operates 14 Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) trains with a total annual production capacity of 77 million tonnes. This makes Qatargas the largest LNG producer in the world.
Established in 1984, Qatargas also develops, produces, and markets hydrocarbons from the world’s largest non-associated natural gas field. In addition to producing LNG, Qatargas is also a leading exporter of natural gas, helium, condensate and associated products.
Today, Qatargas continues to set the benchmark in the LNG industry as it safely and reliably supplies energy to customers all over the world.
With such an outstanding track record in gas development, the Guyana Government is hoping to leverage this knowledge as it moves to develop its imminent gas-to-energy project as well as other gas resources in the basin.
“Once we get pass putting in place the new Petroleum Act and complete the bid round we will turn all of our attention to a national gas strategy. As we said before, Exxon has to complete several studies on the utilization of the gas from the various projects,” Jagdeo said.
He believes these efforts would be complementary to the government push to engage Qatar on this front.
“They have enormous capabilities and expertise and it is something we can capitalize on,” He said, adding that there is also a hope that the Middle Eastern giant would have a greater role to play in Guyana either through the upcoming auction of the 14 oil blocks or through a bilateral arrangement.
Jagdeo also argued that having Qatargas would be to the country’s advantage as it would diversify the scope of companies and their capabilities in Guyana’s backyard.
He said this is all part of government’s strategy to align itself with the best in the industry and to import the skills that would increase the country’s governance capabilities for the industry.
