…making details public would have put both parties at a disadvantage

Source - Guyana Chronicle

OFFICIALS of Ansa McAl Group of Companies yesterday downplayed reports that the agreement with the Government of Guyana was a secret deal, and stressed that the document was not legally binding to either party, but merely paved the way for an in-depth study by the company about the feasibility of establishing a world-scale ethanol fuel production plant in Guyana. Aneal Maharaj, the Group’s Finance Director, disagreed with the reports that the deal was sinister.

Aneal Maharaj, Finance Director of the Ansa McAl Group

He said that making the details of the agreement public would have put both the Government of Guyana and Ansa McAl at a competitive disadvantage.

“At the end of the day, this is business, and Ansa McAl competes for capital and for projects with other companies regionally, so we have to be cognizant of that reality,” he said.

He stressed that the proposed plant was at the moment just a proposal.

He said: “We are not going to talk much about an ethanol plant right now. We are still a long way from declaring that we are going to have a project. We have to complete the feasibility survey first before we move to that”.

Kris Appanah, Director of Ansa McAl (Guyana)

Maharaj was the principal speaker during an interaction with the media and representatives of the company who had flown into the country from Trinidad, to clear up issues surrounding the project which had been raised in articles in the local media over the past week.

The visiting team from Ansa McAl included Melissa Chambers, who is the ethanol project Coordinator; Jose Nivet, Sector Head; and Anthony Sagba III, Group Business Development Executive.
Ansa McAl Guyanese representatives at the briefing were Beverly Harper, Managing Director; and Kris Appanah, Finance Director.

Maharaj disclosed that the company is spending some $17M TT on an in-depth feasibility study of the situation in Guyana, which includes infrastructure and development works, plant and equipment, and rolling stock. The results of this

Anthony Sabga 111, Group Business Development Executive

study will determine whether the company will go ahead with investing an estimated US$300M on a plant in Guyana.

He stressed that apart from the Government of Guyana, Ansa McAl had no equity partners in this phase of the project.

“We are spending this money on our own and at our own risk.”

The feasibility study is to be completed in December.

He said that the company intended to be transparent in the conduct of the feasibility study, and will, at the end of it, share the results with both government and other relevant stakeholders.

He added though that he was tremendously excited at the possibilities of the project, both as an investment for Ansa McAl and for the government and people of Guyana.

He stressed that should the project get off the ground, it is expected that through the

Melissa Chambers, Ethanol Project Coordinator

synergies between the Guyana Government and the Ansa McAL Group, the people of Guyana will benefit through generation of entrepreneurial service industries, resultant employment and wealth creation for nationals of Guyana, and the opportunity for Guyana to become the regional leader in the development of regional policies, standards and frameworks for utilisation of alternative fuels, with the potential to reduce the region’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Ethanol, as ethanol fuel, is used as motor fuel, mainly as a bio-fuel additive for gasoline.

Ethanol fuel is widely used in Brazil and in the United States, and together, both countries were responsible for 88 percent of the

Jose Nivet, Sector Head

world's ethanol fuel production in 2010. Most cars on the road today in the U.S. can run on blends of up to 10% ethanol.

The proposed AnsaMcAl ethanol plant is projected to have a capacity to process up to 2,000,000 tons of sugarcane per year, and produce up to 40 million gallons of ethanol per year.

This agro-energy industrial project, once found to be feasible, will be built on 110,000 hectares of virgin land.

Maharaj pointed out that the availability of large acreages of land in Guyana was one determinant factor in the company choosing this country as a possible site for the investment.

He said that the project is one of the exciting prospects eyed by Ansa McAl under the heading of alternative energy as a feasible investment in the growth and development of the Company.