Marcelle Thomas

The PPP/C’s flagship hydropower project at Amaila Falls, which was canned by the APNU+AFC administration back in late 2017, will be resuscitated, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo says even as the new government forges ahead with the construction of the Kato hydropower project as part of its future energy mix.

Concerns raised by Guyana’s oversight agencies were among reasons for an expanded examination of plans for ExxonMobil’s proposed third oil well, Payara, and the former premier of Alberta, Canada who is heading up the review had been recommended by the Canadian Government This was disclosed yesterday by Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat amid continuing questions about the purpose behind the review of ExxonMobil’s Field Development Plan (FDP) for Payara and whether Canadian Queen’s Counsel, Alison Redford was the appropriate person for this exercise.

As he plans a career outside of politics, former Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin says Alliance for Change (AFC) leaders made a serious misjudgment in not calling out the District Four fraud perpetrated by Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo and he also faulted Guyana Elections Commission Chair Claudette Singh for not acting more decisively in the five-month-long elections crisis.

The PPP/C government yesterday announced that the tender for the marketing of Guyana’s oil is to be reopened and it also said that gas to energy will be a key priority and that local content provisions will be enshrined in law.

In a key oil sector decision, President Irfaan Ali last evening said that his government is lobbying for technical and financial support to have an international expert review Exxon’s Payara project and advise on the way forward.

British High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn yesterday said that the five-month wait for a final declaration from Guyana’s March 2 elections and the blatant attempt to fix the results were both firsts for him in his 25-year career as a diplomat.

Bilateral co-operation between Georgetown and Paramaribo was over the weekend agreed when two recently-elected presidents – Guyana’s Irfaan Ali and Suriname’s Chandrika-persad Santokhi  – held discussions on oil and gas and a bridge across the Corentyne among other areas.

As he called for a swift declaration of the March 2nd General Elections using the recount votes which he said is inevitable, CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of St.

The 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA)  with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), gave the company generous terms of relinquishment for the massive Stabroek Block that would see it holding on to key acreages until 2023 and costing the country billions of dollars, according to attorney-at-law and civil society activist Christopher Ram.

United States Ambassador to Guyana Sarah-Ann Lynch yesterday defended Washington’s move to impose sanctions against persons here acting to derail democracy, while saying that it is driven by the concern that it and over 130 other nations share about the repeated efforts to undermine the will of the people.

-visas to be pulled from those undermining democracy here The United States government yesterday called on the David Granger-led APNU+AFC administration to step aside in recognition of the results of the March 2nd general elections and it also announced visa restrictions for persons “undermining democracy” and those complicit in same.

ExxonMobil and two of its subcontractors were fined three times this year for minor spills of hydraulic fluid in the offshore Stabroek Block and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it wanted to underscore zero tolerance for lax maintenance and procedures in light of the large risk that such operations can pose to the environment and safety.

Yesterday’s Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling has been welcomed by Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali and all of the small parties which contested the March 2 General and Regional Elections, and after four months of waiting they hope it will pave the way for a swift declaration and swearing in of Ali.

ExxonMobil should prove it is using efficient gas flaring technology in oil operations offshore and it is also imperative that both Guyana and the company have stringent measures in place to monitor for leaks from its equipment as such emissions have stronger greenhouse effects, physicist and energy researcher Dr Robert Kleinberg says.

-flaring equal to destroying 6.2 hectares of forest per day continuing Exxon’s flaring of over nine billion cubic feet of natural gas since oil production began in December is equivalent to the loss of 4,642 hectares of forest, which would be valued at US$24 million based on the carbon price under Guyana’s forest protection pact with Norway, says conservationist Dr David Singh.

With the government’s move to transfer at least 10 properties to private companies earlier this month coming under scrutiny, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) yesterday said that it was simply finalising the sale of some of GuySuCo’s assets to help assist the cash-strapped corporation.

With the election recount results showing a loss for the incumbent APNU+AFC, the owner of the Liliendaal property where a billion-dollar infectious diseases hospital has been erected and the contractors involved could face a long wait for payment and searing questions as the winner of the polls, the PPP/C has raised a flurry of accountability issues about the project.

While identifying Clonbrook, Mahaica on the East Coast of Demerara, as the best location for bringing natural gas to shore for domestic use, a 2017 desk study done for the APNU+AFC government put the cost of doing this at US$304 million at least.

Production at Exxon-Mobil’s Liza-1 project in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana, has plummeted from 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) to now between 25,000 and 30,000 bpd as compressor problems continue and the company would not increase flaring above about 15 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Dr Vincent Adams has said.

Persons wishing to fly out of Guyana may have to wait until late December or early 2021 to do so as this country will not open up to commercial air travel until it is assured that rigid COVID-19 prevention measures are in place and cases here have reduced significantly, says Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Director (Ret’d) Colonel Egbert Field.