Construction of oil refinery not currently feasible

Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 August 2024, 22:07 by Writer

The construction of an oil refinery on Crab Island, Berbice River, is not currently feasible because of the current oil production output and shallowness of the waterway around the proposed location, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat said Wednesday.

“We will have to do a bit more assessment and allow the companies to do their assessment as well but it’s something that the government is still inclined to have as an investment in Guyana along with storage,” he said. Mr Bharrat remarked that even without a refinery, storage of fuel was key to Guyana’s energy security due to the situation with Venezuela , and conflicts such as the Ukraine-Russia war.

He said a number of companies had expressed an interest in constructing the refinery to produce 30,000 barrels per day, but a number of them concluded that the project could not work due to the depth of the river for crude oil tankers to come in with supplies. “That, too, is an issue because if you’re going to bring in a vessel or a tanker with a million barrels of oil, then you have to get the draught or you have to build a platform 10 (or) 15 kilometres out and pipe it in,” he said.

Mr Bharrat said government had not shelved the idea but would examine the possibility of building a larger refinery with a capacity of 100,000 barrels per day at current total output of more than 650,000 barrels per day. “It makes no sense having a refinery in Guyana and we cannot supply the crude to it. It makes no sense because you simply have to import crude. That is defeating the entire purpose,” he said.

The minister was confident that Guyana would have sufficient crude to feed a 100,000 barrel per day refinery when the number of oil production ships increases to five or six.