I write in reference to a letter published in the media on January 26, 2025, with the caption “Provide the feasibility report upon which the [Gas-to-Energy] GtE project was premised”, by the Alliance for Change’s (AFC) leader, Nigel Hughes.
The author referenced the Skeldon sugar factor suggesting that a feasibility study was not done for that project. However, contrary to this disingenuous insinuation, a feasibility study was conducted by Booker Tates, a firm that eventually became the client of Nigel Hughes. It would be recalled that the PPP/C Government had taken Booker Tates to court where an appeal was filed at the Court of Appeal against Booker Tate for compensation to the State of over $4 billion for their failure to design and supervise the Skeldon Project as per contract terms and specifications.
It would be interesting to note that this matter was filed in 2015, the same year we had a change of government, whereby the APNU+AFC formed the new government following the 2015 national elections. Nigel Hughes, whose political party, namely the AFC was in government at the time, and who was representing Booker Tates against the State, the APNU+AFC government withdrew the case and Booker Tate escaped without incurring any liability for their negligence in the management and execution of the Skeldon project. Thanks to Nigel Hughes who is on record declaring that his clients’ interests shall always prevail over the country’s interest. This would be a good question that the media should put to Mr. Nigel Hughes at his next press conference: Why did the APNU+AFC Government withdraw the case filed against Booker Tate in the Court of Appeal on the Skeldon matter?
Turning now to the GtE project, Nigel Hughes and/or his associates did not request the information directly from the EXIM Bank. The information was requested by a relative of Mr. Hughes, Elizabeth Dean-Hughes from the US Government through the “Freedom of Information Act”.
Financial institutions do not advance loans for any purpose whatsoever, without conducting their independent due diligence. This includes their own evaluation of the technical, financial and economic feasibility of projects as in the case of the GtE. This is a given, hence, there is no credible reason to doubt or question this process.
That said, the financial and economic feasibility of the GtE is not a State secret. There are seven (7) pieces of documents on the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) website in respect of the GtE feasibility studies. To this end, a feasibility study was submitted by “Energy Narrative” to the Government of Guyana and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in 2018. There are several versions of this study done by Energy Narrative, which are all uploaded and accessible on the MNR website. Another study was done by K&M Advisors in 2019 that is also on the MNR website. Ironically, all of the studies were done under the APNU+AFC Government, yet they claim ignorance to the existence of these studies. (The studies can be accessed here for ease of reference (https://nre.gov.gy/#).
It therefore means that the AFC is being completely dishonest to the nation and/or they are totally clueless as to how to read and comprehend a feasibility study of this nature.