Even as the United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi Ports (ADP) continues compiling technical information on a deep water facility at Berbice, government has also received a proposal from a group of locals and has put Canadian company, CGX Energy Inc on notice to stick to its promised September timeline for a plan.
“We already had CGX relinquishing some of their (oil exploration) blocks recently. So CGX had a development plan that included the building of facilities; land filling and so on. What they have done is give us some assurances, when they relinquished the land, that by the end of September we must have a developed plan from them, as to how they will move forward,” President Irfaan Ali told Stabroek News on Saturday when asked for an update on the proposed project.
Ali said that government will be “Holding to that timeframe, of course; that is why they had to relinquish (the blocks). We are holding them to those timelines,” he added.
In October of last year, and following the visit of a delegation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the President had announced that the maritime logistics company – Abu Dhabi Ports – was evaluating the possibility of establishing a deep water harbour link for business between Guyana and Brazil.
“They had two technical teams in Guyana working and looking at the possibility of the establishment of a deep water harbour link to Brazil and at that meeting, we had in-depth discussions on this possibility. The interest is great in this project and in two to three weeks, they will have a second team coming with a follow-up on evaluation and they’re looking at a modern state-of-the-art port facility operated with cutting edge technology, focusing on efficiency, safety and security,” the President stated.
CGX which boasts of working in Guyana since 1997 has said that it envisaged a deep water port in Berbice since 2010.
The company’s Executive Chairman Suresh Narine has said that the river has one of the deepest natural channels in the country and that was a major advantage with selecting the location.
“All the country’s rivers are gigantic sedimentation systems and those sedimentation systems are depositing our highlands into the Atlantic Ocean. This is very common of most of the major river systems in South America… force throws all of that sediment onto the western banks of the river resulting in all of the channels in this country being along the eastern bank (of the rivers),” he said.
Narine had signalled that the port would have been operationalized by the end of this year, but it was only in February that he informed that works would have begun soon.
When this newspaper visited the area in March of this year, a vast swathe of mangroves had been cleared from the eastern bank of the Berbice River adjacent to Crab Island to facilitate the development and construction of Guyana’s first deep water port.
Preparatory works had been progressing at the location and aerial images that were commissioned showed land filling was underway.
But in April when President Ali was in the United Kingdom for an investment forum, he announced in London that this country was in discussions with Abu Dhabi to build a deep water port and that it would serve the rapid economic development along South America’s Caribbean coast.
In June, government announced that in keeping with CGX’s relinquishment provision in its contract, a notice of blocks to be given up would have been provided and added to this country’s first-time auction of blocks, scheduled for September.
It was CGX’s partner Frontera Energy which updated on the agreement it made to relinquish the Demerara and Berbice Blocks, amounting to a combined 1.1 million acres while saying it would now focus its attention on its Corentyne location.
Ali on Saturday told Stabroek News that when the relinquishment
agreement was constructed, the company gave assurances that with a plan for the port by the end of September, they would update on how they move forward.
He also pointed out that a number of other investors have expressed interest in the port at Berbice and only last week a local consortium of port operators submitted a proposal.
Qataris
“We also have interest from other stakeholders. Saudi Arabia, they have expressed interest, the Qataris have some interest. But the partner right now [that] is working on the technical interest [is] Abu Dhabi Ports. We also have local interests. We have received interest from a local consortium of port operators wanting to do something in Berbice. That only came in last week,” Ali said.
“So in the new week, we will have a conversation with them to see how we marry all of this. We also have proposals from a group from India called the Guardian group. So we have a number of proposals pertaining to the port facility,” he added.
The President also again emphasized that the project is across borders and will benefit Brazil, Suriname and Guyana initially and expand thereafter.
He made clear that the port is not just about a focus on oil and gas, as this country continues to seek ways at diversifying its economy.
“The deep water port is not only connected to the oil sector, it is connected to agriculture, food production… whether we have a refinery facility or a bulk storage facility. So we have the UAE’s Abu Dhabi Ports examining it right now,” he said.
“…It will be connected to the energy corridor we are discussing and this whole development hub”, he added.
The interest in a deep water harbour for Guyana and Brazil trade has been on the agenda for a number of years through the Partial Scope Agreement which was signed between the two countries on June 27, 2001.
The deep water port proposed by CGX is to be constructed aback of Seawell Village, Corentyne, Berbice and the civil works are being carried out by the company’s subsidiary, Grand Canal Industrial Estates Inc (CGIE) The deep water port facility is estimated to cost a total of US$80 million.
CGIE had acquired a lease from government for 54.96 acres of the Berbice River front lands on August 10th 2012 for a period of 50 years.
A presentation on the project stated that the company envisions the port to service oil and gas exploration and production, agriculture export, containerized export, cruise ship docking and regional shipping, among other services.
