The Guyana gov­ern­ment says it in­tends to es­tab­lish an oil re­fin­ery in Re­gion Six, East Berbice-Coren­tyne, which is one of ten re­gions in Guyana cov­er­ing the whole of the east of the coun­try.

Pres­i­dent Ir­faan Ali said that his ad­min­is­tra­tion has al­ready in­vit­ed Ex­pres­sions of In­ter­est (EOI) from stake­hold­ers.

“We are about to launch a new ad for re­quests for pro­pos­als, and that re­quest for pro­pos­als is for a new 30,000-bar­rel (per day) re­fin­ery for na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty to be built in Guyana, here in Re­gion Six,” he said, adding that the gov­ern­ment will be re­ceiv­ing those sub­mis­sions with­in two months from those who are in­ter­est­ed in in­vest­ing in the re­fin­ery.

Ali said such a de­vel­op­ment will cre­ate enor­mous op­por­tu­ni­ties in the area of trans­port and lo­gis­tics, ser­vices and the con­struc­tion and rental in­dus­try that will bring tremen­dous ben­e­fit to the peo­ple of the re­gion.

“In all of this, Re­gion Six is well po­si­tioned to be the cen­tre­piece for growth and de­vel­op­ment,” Pres­i­dent Ali said, not­ing that while his ad­min­is­tra­tion is pur­su­ing these large in­vest­ments aimed at stim­u­lat­ing the lo­cal econ­o­my, it is in­vest­ing in large projects to sup­port these en­deav­ours.

Ali said the gov­ern­ment is work­ing on an ag­gres­sive pro­gramme not on­ly to con­struct a new Berbice high­way, and is cur­rent­ly eval­u­at­ing the need for a new Berbice Riv­er Bridge that will not hin­der the de­vel­op­ment of the Berbice Riv­er.

“That will al­low de­vel­op­ment on both sides of the Berbice riv­er like we have in the De­mer­ara Riv­er. We are con­tem­plat­ing that and while we are con­tem­plat­ing that, we are at the stage of plan­ning the work for the new high­way all the way to Mol­son Creel in prepa­ra­tion for the new Coren­tyne Riv­er Bridge.”

Mean­while, the gov­ern­ment says it is con­tin­u­ing to forge mean­ing­ful re­la­tions with coun­tries, as it con­tin­ues to de­vel­op the oil and en­er­gy sec­tor.

“With Guyana in pur­suit of trans­form­ing its econ­o­my, while build­ing new sec­tors, the coun­try con­tin­ues to deep­en its re­la­tion­ship with its in­ter­na­tion­al al­lies. Es­pe­cial­ly as the coun­try’s rate of growth in the oil and gas sec­tor con­tin­ues,” said For­eign Sec­re­tary, Robert Per­saud.

His state­ment fol­lows the re­cent vis­it by the Min­is­ter of En­er­gy Af­fairs in Qatar, who led a del­e­ga­tion to Guyana that al­so in­clud­ed the man­ag­ing di­rec­tor chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of Qatar En­er­gy, En­gi­neer Saad bin Sheri­da Al-Kaabi, who is al­so the and chair­man of Qatar Air­ways.

Per­saud said that the au­thor­i­ties here used the vis­it of the del­e­ga­tion, which al­so held talks with Pres­i­dent Ali, to de­vel­op syn­er­gies with coun­tries that have ex­pe­ri­ence in the sec­tor.

“It is al­so the Pres­i­dent’s for­eign pol­i­cy thrust to part­ner with coun­tries that have had good track record of peo­ple cen­tred de­vel­op­ment so that we can avoid the pit­falls and leap-frog with our de­vel­op­ment agen­da for Guyana,” Per­saud said, adding that the gov­ern­ment was able to have ex­ten­sive dis­cus­sions on sev­er­al ini­tia­tives that will strength­en its re­la­tion­ship and strate­gic al­liances with Qatar.

“The aim is to ex­plore and start ini­tial dis­cus­sion which will def­i­nite­ly lead in­to tech­ni­cal co­op­er­a­tion agree­ments, in­clud­ing ways in which Qatar can al­so in­vest in var­i­ous sec­tors in Guyana – we would ben­e­fit from a coun­try that have tremen­dous­ly knowl­edge and cap­i­tal be­cause Guyana aims to build not on­ly a first-class en­er­gy sec­tor but to trans­form every sec­tor in­to first-class sec­tor.”

Guyana and Qatar es­tab­lished for­mal diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions on Au­gust 23, 1996 and, since then, have col­lab­o­rat­ed at the mul­ti­lat­er­al lev­el through or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the Unit­ed Na­tions and the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Is­lam­ic Co­op­er­a­tion.

Guyana re­cent­ly signed an Air Ser­vices Agree­ment with Qatar.

“Our pres­ence in the Mid­dle East is grow­ing and I think it’s go­ing to yield sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fits for the peo­ple of Guyana, in terms of in­vest­ments and in­vest­ment not on­ly in pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships but pri­vate cap­i­tal,” said For­eign Af­fairs, Hugh Todd.