Dear Editor,
A letter written by Mr Deo Phagoo, P. Eng, on 05 April 2021 under the heading “Using floating vessels for Liquefied Petroleum Gas could be a better choice than a pipeline,” offers the option of transporting Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) ) to shore by using LNG tankers as a more practical and flexible solution, compared to a fixed pipeline.
As highlighted in Mr. Phagoo, a comprehensive cost analysis should be done to evaluate the economics of using chartered LNG carriers compared to the fixed pipeline.
However, aside from the economics, there are odds that make this proposal an attractive alternative, namely:
• Shipping LNG will spawn a complete new maritime industry that can contain a lot of local content. This initiative of transporting the gas ashore to produce 200MW of electricity would require at least two to three small LNG tankers of around 5,000 -7,000 tonnes deadweight due to our draft restrictions, particularly to a site such as Wales. Our local entrepreneurs, in partnership with the owners of LNG tankers in Qatar, who are by far the leading country in the LNG tanker trade, can charter and manage the shipping of these vessels.
The new Maritime Training School in Friendship, EBD would now have the opportunity to provide our sailors with the specialized training for the various positions on these high-pressure technical vessels, thereby creating more high-income employment.
In addition, the proposed fixed-span high-span Demerara River Bridge would allow unrestricted ship movement, eliminating the delays now caused by the retractable bridge.
• As Mr Phagoo pointed out, what happens to the pipeline after the gas is depleted in Lisa 1. Obviously, it becomes redundant and will have a decommissioning cost.
On the other hand, using the LNG tankers gives flexibility, due to its mobility to find the gas when Lisa 1 runs dry from other developing wells, or in Suriname or Trinidad, and not is there any infrastructure to decommission. This is especially critical given Exxon’s flawed performance in the ongoing drama with their ephemeral saga of the uncontrollable compressor, which raises their reliability’s concern as the sole supplier of natural gas to the 200MW plant project.
• A fixed pipeline route through the mouth of the Demerara River is risky business, especially in light of the GPL experience with their submarine cable, which is repeatedly damaged by boats at moorings.
Given projections for increasing maritime traffic on the Demerara River, this in turn definitely increases the possibility of a ship damaging the pipeline, which can be very disastrous.
• Construction of the gas pipeline will certainly cause ecological and environmental problems for the fishing industry, but most LNG tankers are powered by natural gas, which will be much more environmentally friendly .
• The clincher for using LNG tankers is that the new engines for the 46MW GPL factory currently under construction at Garden-of-Eden are all dual-powered in design and operation on Fuel Oil or LNG. This is the ideal opportunity, as a pilot project, to operate the 46 MW plant using tankers to transport the natural gas. All that would be needed would be to install the necessary gas storage and processing plant at Garden-of-Eden, and the journey of producing 46MW of green power can almost begin.

Yours faithfully,
Reggie Bhagwandin

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