Guyana
to cut down on oil imports
By Rickey Singh
Trinidad Express
Caracas
Petroleumworldtt.com
05 06 07
Guyana's push to cut its escalating oil
imports bill with concentrated focus in
developing an energy sector driven by biofuels,
with international support, reaches a new stage
today.
It is the scheduled official handing over to Prime
Minister Samuel Hinds of a report prepared by the
United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and based on a study
commissioned by the Guyana Government.
The report, to be presented at
the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre by Neill Pierre, ECLA's
sub-regional director, indicates positive features
for Guyana's production of biofuels from
sugarcane and also potatoes.Â
Guyana's Agriculture Minister Robert
Persaud, is
expected to provide an update on the government's
strategy in the development of biofuels-primarily
ethanol from sugarcane-with overseas assistance,
including the European Union, and involving private
investors, among them "Bio Capital" of
Brazil and "Global Energy Ventures" of
the USA.
President Bharrat Jagdeo recently established
an Inter-Ministry Agency Working Group to coordinate
activities and review proposals on the way forward
for an economically viable biofuels and agro-energy
sector.
A two-member team of experts from the European
Union have already visited Guyana and held discussions
with the Agriculture Minister and representatives
of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO).
The government, which will have
the ECLAC study to help guide its thrust in the
development of
a sound biofuels sector, plans on initially utilising
about 50,000 hectares of uncultivated land
in the Canje region of Berbice, consistent with its
declared intention to avoid acquiring lands being
used by either cash-crop farmers or GUYSUCO.
The ECLAC report has signalled
that with "proper
institutional arrangements in place", it would
be possible to initiate, in a few months, "pilot
tests with national fuel and to design the plan
for the progressive introduction of ethanol in
the energy matrix of Guyana..."
According to the ECLAC assessment,
other areas of technological development, in
addition to ethanol
production, could be the utilisation of local raw
materials, such as potatoes, for which, it said, "there
is already a clear interest in Guyana, and
the evaluation of methods for the handling of related
industrial waste..."
Trinidad
Express
Tuesday, May 1st 2007
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