Nov 4 (Reuters) - Guyana and Suriname could supply 12
million metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas annually at a
competitive price by the next decade, according to a report by
Wood Mackenzie on Monday.
LNG demand is expected to spike by the end of the decade as
industries switch from highly polluting coal to gas, which can
cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as half.
Guyana and its neighbor Suriname have emerged as hotbeds for
oil and gas exploration, with energy majors such as Exxon Mobil ( XOM )
and TotalEnergies committing billions of
dollars for new projects.
Suriname's offshore Block 52 and Guyana's offshore Haimara
cluster are estimated to hold 13 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of
discovered non-associated gas, according to the report by the
commodities research group.
Non-associated gas refers to natural gas sourced from a
conventional gas field which has no crude oil or has such
minimal amounts that it cannot be economically extracted.
The sources could deliver the potential LNG at a breakeven
cost of $6 per million British thermal unit, Wood Mackenzie
analysts said.
The new gas projects could provide supplies at a time when
the global market still needs 105 million metric tonnes per
annum of LNG to fill the gap between supply and demand by 2035,
the report added.
"U.S. and Qatar LNG dominance is rapidly growing, but there
is a supply window in the mid-2030s coming in part from US
President Biden's pause on approving new LNG export projects,"
said Amanda Bandeira, a research analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
However, these developments are still not certain as there
are some questions related to the commercial structure of the
projects and fiscal terms, the report said.