Sithe Global in talks with Govt. on Amaila Falls Hydro Project - Dr. Singh
April 24, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under News, Source
As the Government continues to press for the 165MW Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Plant, all of the previous partners in the project remain engaged, including Sithe Global which had announced a pull out last August.
Finance Minister
Dr Ashni Singh
The revelation was made on the final day for the consideration of the estimates in the 2014 Budget, when the Opposition slashed the more than $16B set aside as part of Guyana’s equity for the Project.
According to Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, Sithe Global has remained engaged and has shown enthusiasm for the project.
He did note that the company has publicly stated that publicly or otherwise that a signal of political support is critical for them to go ahead with the project.
The Finance Minister announced, too, that the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) as well as the China Development Bank has also still been engaged and are proceeding with their technical works.
According to Dr. Singh, “We expect the IDB due diligence by third quarter of this year.”
Dr. Singh made the revelations at a time when he was pleading for the opposition support regarding the project.
He argued at the time that it would be very hard to say to the IDB, the CDB or Sithe Global, to approve financing for the project “when we ourselves appear undecided.”
Dr. Singh suggested that Government has absolutely no difficulty in subjecting the project to scrutiny again and would be happy to establish a committee to that end.
He is committed to making all the documents available to the opposition publicly and those that are subject to confidentiality, “they can get it in camera.”
Last August, when Sithe Global announced that it had pulled out of the project, its President, Brian Kubeck, maintained that “a public-private partnership of this magnitude requires a national consensus in order for us to proceed further.”
Kubeck was referring to the fact that the political opposition was divided on the pieces of legislation it had to consider in relation to the venture.
Government’s point man on the project, Winston Brassington, last January, met with the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources and had disclosed that Government had started looking at a number of options after Sithe Global’s pullout, recognizing that the parties involved had spent considerable time and monies in developing it.
The contractor, China Railway First Group, remains “keenly committed” to the project. So does China Development Bank, Brassington said.
Brassington, the current Chairman of GPL, made it clear that China is willing to step in and “fill the gap” with regards to financing.
Under the financing structure, in the original arrangement, Sithe Global would have been putting in US$152M; IDB US$175M, Guyana US$100M and CDB US$413M.
China Rail had already signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) agreement with Sithe for US$506M.
Some 70 per cent of the total funding would have been coming from the CDB and the IDB.
Brassington at the time stressed that talks are still ongoing with the partners with any negotiations still at a preliminary stage.
Before the end of this first quarter, Government would be in a better position to know the next step.
The official at the time did not rule out Sithe Global returning to the picture.
