India may buy natural gas from Guyana, if it produces it in excess, said Indian High Commissioner to Guyana K J Srinivasa. He also said that India remains interested in entering into a long-term procurement deal with the South American country to purchase its share of oil extracted.

Quoting the high commissioner, the Guyana Chronicle newspaper said that India is willing to purchase Guyana’s share of oil lifts at the market value annually and on a long-term basis through a government-to-government agreement.

Srinivasa, in an interview with the newspaper, said that Indian companies such as Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) – all state-owned companies - would be interested in buying crude from Guyana in the future.

He said that the two countries “are still negotiating” the procurement deal.

Recently, Guyanese Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat confirmed that the Indian government was in talks with Guyana for the purchase of crude for short-term oil contracts in order to offset its earlier high priced long-term contracts entered into.

India has also signaled its willingness to help Guyana develop its gas-to-shore project, the newspaper said. The envoy reportedly said that assistance can be provided to use the gas for the energy purposes, use it as fertilisers or to bottle the gas as Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

“If you want to set up a processing plant here, we will help you set that up… but if they have excess gas to market, yes, of course we will talk to them once we know what is the quantity and what is going to happen because we don’t know anything right now,” he was quoted by the newspaper.

India also has a large demand for gas which has resulted in it entering into large contracts with several countries.

Once Guyana has excess natural gas to market, the high commissioner assured that the Indian government would consider purchasing from Guyana.

A special task force established by President Irfaan Ali to assess the feasibility of a gas-to-energy project has since determined that close to 2,000 acres of land would be needed to construct a power generation facility. Beyond purchasing the oil and gas being produced in Guyana’s Stabroek block, Srinivasa noted that India has a keen interest in helping to develop Guyana’s technical capacity for its burgeoning oil and gas industry.

In this regard, a MoU to fund the training and capacity-building of Guyanese personnel has been proposed to the natural resources ministry by India. Under the MoU, Guyanese industry workers will travel to India for training with the local oil and gas corporations there.

“We will be very proud to join Guyana in its development journey and also share our expertise with Guyana because we understand that Guyana needs a lot of skills and capacity building in that sector,” Srinivasa said. 

Guyanese President Mohammed Irfaan Ali told an international conference that the country was unfolding a national transformative agenda and the next ten years will witness unprecedented levels of growth and development that will open up investment opportunities across all sectors.