Guyana Bets on Gas to Escape the Oil Trap It Built

• President Irfaan Ali announced a second gas-to-shore pipeline project in Berbice — and invited Suriname to join, combining both countries’ gas reserves to scale up from a medium to a large industrial operation
• Guyana’s first pipeline is set to come online later this year, delivering 300 megawatts to a new power plant near Georgetown — enough to cut electricity costs by half in a country plagued by blackouts
• ExxonMobil called gas development an “attractive” opportunity but warned it is more complex than oil, requiring regulatory clarity and onshore infrastructure that Guyana has yet to build

Ten years ago, Guyana had never produced a barrel of oil. Today it pumps 900,000 barrels per day from the offshore Stabroek Block, making this nation of 800,000 people South America’s third-largest oil producer and the world’s largest per capita. GDP has averaged 47% annual growth since 2022, according to the IMF. Oil revenue now funds more than a third of the national budget. By any measure, this is one of the most dramatic economic transformations in modern history.

And President Irfaan Ali wants to pivot away from it — or at least, away from depending on it alone. At the Guyana Energy Conference on Tuesday, he announced plans for a second gas-to-shore pipeline, this one landing in Berbice on the country’s eastern coast. He invited neighboring Suriname to combine its gas reserves with Guyana‘s, scaling the project from a medium-sized domestic operation into a regional industrial hub anchored by manufacturing, agricultural processing, and potentially petrochemicals.

The molecules are there — the infrastructure is not

The Stabroek Block holds an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves alongside its 11 billion barrels of oil. Until now, most of that gas has been reinjected into wells to maintain oil pressure. Guyana’s first gas-to-shore pipeline, a 225-kilometer subsea line from the Liza field to a new 300-megawatt power plant near Georgetown, is expected to start operating later this year. It should cut electricity costs by roughly half in a country where blackouts remain common.

But ExxonMobil‘s upstream president Dan Ammann offered a careful endorsement. Gas is “more complex” than oil, he told the conference, requiring processing facilities, compression systems, and pipeline networks that Guyana has never built. The company sees an “attractive” opportunity but made clear that investment will follow regulatory and commercial progress on the ground. Guyana has proven it can extract wealth from beneath the ocean. The harder question — one that defines whether an oil boom becomes a lasting economy — is whether it can build what’s needed on land before the political window and commodity cycle shift. This is part of The Rio Times’ daily coverage of Latin American affairs and financial news.