Granting of new oil blocks will be open, public process – President Ali

…as Govt mulls retaining, managing some blocks

The Guyana Government is contemplating retaining some of the oil blocks offshore Guyana to be managed locally, according to President Dr Irfaan Ali.
He made this remark in response to a question asked by Guyana Times on the sale of oil blocks during a news conference on Wednesday at State House.
Ali said, however, that this consideration is still in the preliminary stage.
“Discussions are still ongoing. It calls for a lot of technical analysis on whether Guyana itself will retain some of those blocks for our own development and to manage by ourselves. But that is very preliminary,” he posited.

But the Head of State outlined that when it comes to granting of the new oil blocks offshore Guyana, that process will have to be an open and public one.
“We have made it very clear that the process in awarding new oil blocks will be very much different. It will be an open, public process, and when we get to that stage, it will be a public, open bidding process. We will be looking for the best offer in an open public bid,” Ali stressed.
Currently, United States oil major ExxonMobil has operating stakes in the three oil blocks offshore Guyana, where exploration activities, and in one case production, are ongoing.
Exxon’s affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), is the operator of the 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometres) Stabroek Block, and holds a 45 per cent interest. It’s operating partner Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd holds 30 per cent interest, and the other operating partner, CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned CNOOC Limited, holds 25 per cent interest.
There have been 19 discoveries, with the latest one announced just this week, in the Stabroek Block, which is estimated to have over 9 billion oil-equivalent barrels of oil. Production of the “light sweet crude” found there started in December 2019 at the Liza-1 project.
Exxon also has a 35 per cent operating interest in the Canje Block, along with partners, France’s Total which also has 35 per cent interest, Canadian junior JHI with 17.5 per cent interest, and local company Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas Inc. with 12.5 per cent interest. This block could hold as much as 10 billion barrels of oil in total, and drilling is ongoing there.
The Kaieteur Block, which spans 13,500 km2 and holds a gross estimated prospective resource of 2.1 billion barrels of oil, is being operated by Exxon’s local subsidiary EEPGL (35%); and Cataleya Energy Ltd. (25%), Ratio Guyana Ltd. (25%) and Hess Guyana (15%) are its partners.
Meanwhile, the joint venture partners in the Orinduik Block, which is operated by British-owned Tullow Guyana B.V. (60%), renewed their block licence last month, with some changes in the Petroleum Agreement.
The 25 per cent working interest held by partner Total E&P Guyana B.V. has been transferred to a new company – TOQAP Guyana B.V. – jointly owned by Total E&P Guyana B.V. (60%) and Qatar Petroleum (40%).
With these changes, the joint venture partners on the Orinduik Petroleum Agreement are Tullow Guyana with its 60 per cent working interest, Eco Atlantic with 15 per cent WI and TOQAP with 25 per cent WI.

The entry of Qatar into Guyana’s offshore blocks is reflective of the mounting interest by several other major players in the global petroleum industry in scooping up oil blocks offshore Guyana.
In fact, since 2018, India has been expressing an interest in securing oil blocks here.
“That interest is still there. Whenever [the oil blocks open up] we will bid like everybody else, but we have told [the Guyana Government] openly that we are interested in that,” Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr K.J. Srinivasa, told <<Guyana Times>> last month during an interview.
Further, the energy-hungry nation is also looking for a long-term contract for the supply of crude. Only last month, India bought a million-barrel shipment of Guyana’s crude from Hess Corp.
In a recent report published by Reuters, Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat was quoted as saying that India has approached the Government of Guyana about the possibility of a long-term agreement to buy crude, currently being produced from the Liza field offshore Guyana.
Bharrat further told Reuters that India, which is the world’s third largest importer of oil, is interested in buying one of the million-barrel oil lifts that Guyana is entitled to, with the intention of testing the crude in its refineries.
According to the Natural Resources Minister, if the crude is compatible, India could begin talks on this long-term agreement.
High Commissioner Srinivasa had previously explained that India has called on all its refiners – both state-run refiners and also private refiners – to diversify its crude sources.
“The Government of India has asked the refiners to speed up the diversification of imports which will cut our dependence mainly from the Middle East and through all the OPEC+ countries. So, basically, we’re trying to diversify and we’re trying to rekindle our partnership with other countries… You know, we are an energy-hungry nation. We import about 86 per cent of crude… And obviously, your Liza oil – “light sweet crude” are the words used – seems to be well suited for our refinery,” the Indian diplomat had said to this newspaper. (G8)