President Irfaan Ali at his September 14, 2026 press conference. Image: Department of Public Information.
The Government of Guyana is reviewing proposals for a national fuel-storage network intended to hold larger reserves for domestic demand and potentially supply the northern Brazilian market.
President Irfaan Ali disclosed the review at a September 14 press conference, according to a Department of Public Information report published on September 28.
The concept under consideration is a hub-and-spoke network: a main fuel farm supported by smaller facilities at strategic locations. Lethem was specifically identified as one possible location for a smaller facility.
The announcement establishes that proposals are being reviewed. It does not establish that the network has been approved, financed or awarded.
Storage options under consideration
President Ali said the options being considered range from storage equivalent to 30 days of supply up to 120 days. The official release did not identify the proposed capacity in barrels or litres, the site of the main fuel farm, the number of secondary facilities, an estimated project cost or a delivery schedule.
Those details will be necessary to assess the scale of the project and the logistics required to move fuel between the principal storage site, inland locations and any export market.
The reference to northern Brazil points to the potential cross-border role of Lethem. However, the release did not identify a buyer, supply agreement, transport route, product mix or export volume. The Brazilian market component should therefore be described as an objective under consideration, not a contracted outlet.
Rising fuel costs form part of the review
The official announcement placed the proposal review in the context of higher imported-fuel costs. According to the DPI account, President Ali said the cost of imported refined products such as gasoline had increased by 51 per cent since January, while diesel used for power generation had risen by 86.8 per cent.
Those figures are the President’s reported estimates in the September 28 release. No underlying import-price series or calculation was included, so they should remain attributed rather than presented as independently verified market data.
The President also said higher costs had not been passed on to consumers and that the government had increased support to Guyana Power and Light. The announcement referred to “tens of billions of dollars” being sought for GPL’s higher fuel bill, but did not state a precise additional subsidy amount or financing structure.
Related proposals remain separate
The official report also said a delegation from the United Arab Emirates had presented a refinery proposal and that one or two other proposals were under consideration. It added that Bechtel was carrying out studies connected to a deep-water port.
These initiatives may form part of a wider energy and logistics strategy, but the release did not confirm that the refinery, port and fuel-storage network are a single project or that any of them has received final approval.
What must be confirmed next
The next useful disclosures would include the preferred network design, site-selection process, environmental and planning requirements, storage capacity, ownership model, financing, procurement route and implementation timetable.
Until those points are officially confirmed, the project should remain at proposal-review stage. The current development is that the government is assessing a national storage concept, including a main fuel farm and smaller strategic facilities, rather than commencing construction of an approved network.
