3-year Guyana-DR agreement – Consortium to begin oil exploratory work within Berbice Block in 6 months

…to create jobs, business opportunities across Region 6 – Bharrat

Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat has announced that a Dominican Republic (DR) consortium is expected to begin exploration activities within the Berbice Block in six months. In May 2026, the Guyana Government had signed an agreement with DR to jointly explore and potentially develop oil and natural gas resources in the onshore Berbice Block. Under the deal, the Dominican Petroleum Refinery will represent the Dominican State and receive a 10 per cent stake in the project without requiring an upfront capital investment. If commercially viable reserves are discovered, the Dominican Republic would gain access to crude oil or natural gas under preferential terms, strengthening the country’s long-term energy security. The initiative stems from a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2023 by President Luis Abinader and President Mohamed Irfaan Ali. The project has involved technical coordination between the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Refidomsa, and Guyanese authorities. Providing an update on the initiative during the Starting Point podcast on Sunday, Minister Bharrat said, “we’ve given them a very short timeframe to start these activities. Within four-six months, we must see some kind of activities within the Berbice Block.” Minister Bharrat added that the agreement signed between Guyana and DR is for three years, “where they will obviously do their surveys and they will start drilling at some point in time soon”.
Previously held by CGX Energy (under ON Energy), the Berbice Block along with the Demerara Block were surrendered so the company could focus on the offshore Corentyne Block. Minister Bharrat noted that, “CGX would have done some drilling in the Berbice Block in the past”. According to CGX Energy’s website, “there is strong evidence that oil has migrated onto the onshore Guyana Berbice Block and has been trapped…There has been pay on logs and oil shows in cuttings from Berbice wells drilled by ON Energy Inc. Large structures and stratigraphic changes on Berbice provide hydrocarbon traps. There is strong evidence that these traps are well positioned to be filled with hydrocarbons that have migrated to onshore Guyana.”
The website outlined that the company previously drilled three wells on the block and acquired 17 2D seismic lines along with an aeromagnetic and gravity survey. To augment these data, it was noted that CGX conducted a Geochemical Soil Survey in late 2018. “A surface soil gas survey was conducted by Exploration Technologies Inc. (ETI) in collaboration with the University of Guyana (UG) Berbice Campus and several of the Berbice technical institutes. A total of 314 shallow soil gas vapours were collected between 27 October and 4 November of 2018 from a depth of 4 feet subsurface. The data set is wide-spread, with samples collected on 1 kilometre (km) spacing along three roads and two gridded areas. The geochemical survey confirmed the presence of subsurface oil sources within the Berbice block,” the website noted. Meanwhile, the Natural Resources Minister highlighted the economic benefits that will unfold for Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) when activities begin in the Berbice Block by the DR consortium.
“It will generate a lot of opportunities in Region Six, whether it’s for direct employment, indirect employment, provision of goods and services, training, there will be many opportunities, housing, transportation, these are all services that are required when exploration activities are ongoing,” he emphasised.