Dear Editor,
More than a year ago I indicated that the Gas-to-Energy venture will encounter huge problems. Now, recent revelations by your newspaper on the Gas-to-Energy project have indicated alarming and dangerous projections. The main contractor, Lindsayca has demanded US$250 million more to continue the construction to further compound the US$108 million awarded by the court for delays. When first conceived in 2018, the Gas-to-Energy project was estimated at US$478 million. Fast forward to 2026, and the figure has bloated to over US$2 billion, with some experts warning final costs could touch US$3 billion after accounting for delays, grid upgrades, and contractor disputes. It must be noted that Power China International Group Limited (PCIGL) in its financial proposal offered to construct the integrated facility for US$704M ($703,652,256.29)- a whopping US$194 million cheaper than the initial bid submitted by Lindsayca/ CH4. Fast forward to April 2026 and we are witnessing a refuting of claims that it had secretly paid over US$80M after losing an arbitration against Lindsayca-CH4 Guyana Inc., an all too familiar scenario of clandestine money dealings.
The breakdown tells its own story: US$1 billion for ExxonMobil’s 250-kilometre pipeline; US$759 million for the power plant and Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility at Wales; and another US$160 million for transmission lines, substations, and land acquisition. What began as a pathway to lower light bills has turned into a monument of cost inflation.
Former President Bharat Jagdeo’s track record with mega projects reads like a case study in how not to manage public investments. The Skeldon Sugar Factory and the Amaila Falls Hydro Project already stand as towering reminders of hubris over prudence—projects plagued by half-baked studies, astronomical overruns, and enduring losses. Today, as he dons the mantle of “Chief Oil Director,” Jagdeo is once again steering Guyana into what could become another financial catastrophe—the Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project.
The administration has marketed this enterprise as the nation’s energy breakthrough, promising cheaper electricity and prosperity to follow. But a closer look reveals soaring costs, engineering blunders, and troubling secrecy that together echo the poorest traditions of project mismanagement under Jagdeo’s watch.
The decision to locate the project at Wales might be the most reckless stroke of all. Engineers have confirmed that the land was soft, soggy, and unfit for such heavy industrial construction. The result? Fourteen months and over US$100 million just to stabilize the soil—an avoidable expense had a credible feasibility study been done. Even now, the gas pipeline completed by Exxon in 2024 lies idle, filled with nitrogen to prevent rusting while the power plant lags behind schedule. That idleness comes at a price: Guyana continues to burn costly heavy fuel for electricity, draining an additional US$232 million from the treasury.
Layered atop the technical fiascos is a web of questionable deals. A US$50,000 monthly consultancy fee to a Dominican Republic firm with reported ties to high-ranking officials has stirred alarm among analysts. The main contractor, Lindsayca, is now embroiled in a multi-million-dollar legal war with the government over overruns and delay claims reportedly approaching US$100 million.
Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—the very body meant to safeguard national interests—has fallen into the spotlight for procedural breaches. When environmental activists Vanda Radzik and Elizabeth Deane-Hughes challenged the EPA’s illegal granting of a key permit to ExxonMobil, High Court Judge Priya Sewnarine-Beharry agreed that the agency acted “contrary to law and improper.” Yet, she stopped short of quashing the permit, citing the billions already sunk into the project—a quiet admission that Guyana’s Gas-to-Energy scheme is now too big to fail, no matter how fatally flawed.
The government has promised that electricity bills will fall by 50%, but that arithmetic seems less convincing by the day. Hidden within the oil accounts, audits have revealed that Exxon has been deducting pipeline costs from Guyana’s oil revenues since 2018—long before gas will ever flow. As debt mounts and timelines crumble, the dream of affordable energy risks becoming another illusion sold to weary citizens.
Earlier studies identified East Coast sites with stronger soil and lower risk. Yet, political calculations appeared to outweigh technical wisdom. The result: a project anchored more in partisan interest than in sound economics or environmental logic.
There is well-documented history of financial crimes levelled against Ruben Figuera and his integral role in the Maduro regime’s plundering of state assets, Today, he operates freely in Guyana as the Project Director for Lindsayca, the Gas-to-Energy project was meant to light up Guyana. Instead, it’s burning through billions, dimming faith in governance and accountability. The pattern is achingly familiar—an elite few gambles with national wealth while citizens are left to shoulder the debt. The call for foreign investors to generate funding is an admission of failure; no sensible person will front money in an uncertain, shaky venture. If history is a teacher, then Guyana is once again sitting for a painful lesson. This time, however, the scale of the disaster could eclipse even Skeldon. The buzzards are circling.