The inclusion of natural gas as part of Guyana’s ‘Green State Plan’ has snagged this country’s access to the US$80 million in payments for forest services from Norway being held by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Minister of State Joseph Harmon says.
However, Guyana is adamant that it has satisfied the requirements to have the monies released and is hoping that in current discussions with Oslo the issue will be rectified and it can soon begin tapping the funds.
“The inclusion of natural gas in the energy mix is something which they have a problem with.” Harmon told Sunday Stabroek in an interview.
“We have said to them that natural gas is clean energy, even though it is not a renewable. It is clean energy and it is cheap energy and at this stage of our development, we have considered that to be very essential. Norway was saying that natural gas is not a renewable source of energy. We are having some discussions on if you include it, how much to include and so forth. So, this is where we are at this point in time with the Norwegians, with respect to our energy mix up to 2025,” Harmon told Sunday Stabroek.
