India awaits response from Govt on purchasing crude

– also interested in oil blocks, gas-to-energy sector & downstream manufacturing

The Indian Government is likely to soon enter talks with the Guyana Government, on purchasing crude oil. And this is just one of the several commercial areas that companies from India are eyeing investments in.
During the recent Energy Conference and Expo, Indian High Commissioner to Guyana Dr KJ Srinivasa told this publication of India’s interest in investing in Guyana. Specifically, he made it clear that India is interested in Guyana’s oil. He noted that with the recent first oil at Liza Phase 2, this means more opportunity for business.

“Of course, we are interested in the oil. So, the Indian oil corporation is working with us for procuring oil on a long-term basis. So, with the coming online of the Liza Unity right now, I think we will have more amount of oil to come into play and I think that will provide opportunity for Guyana to share that oil with India on a commercial basis.”
“The infrastructure sector, the gas-to-energy sector, is something we’re interested in. We’re also working with the back-end processing, the IT and the BPO processing, for most of these companies,” Dr Srinivasa also said.
According to the High Commissioner, they are awaiting the Government’s response to their proposal on buying crude on a government-to-government basis.
He also revealed that Indian companies are interested in Guyana’s oil blocks, whenever they go out to auction. These companies, he explained, are mostly public sector enterprises, which are either partly or wholly owned by the State.
“In that, people are interested. Because India has that capability of exploring offshore oil. We’re doing it with the Brazilians, we’re doing it with the Russians offshore, we’re doing it with Africa. So, we have the capability. And we have that huge interest in the oil blocks also,” the High Commissioner also said.
India has previously expressed an interest in buying crude from Guyana, including through a long-term agreement. Last year, one million barrels of oil from Guyana was bought by HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL), a joint venture between State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Indian steel tycoon LN Mittal.
The Liza Phase 2 began producing oil earlier this month. In fact, this will bring Guyana’s oil production capacity to 340,000 barrels per day (bpd) following the commencement of production at the Liza Phase 2 project.
It was explained at the time that production at the Liza Unity FPSO vessel is expected to reach its target of 220,000 barrels of oil later this year, as operations continue to be brought safely online.
ExxonMobil has said it anticipates at least six projects offshore Guyana will be online by 2027. This includes the Payara and the Yellowtail developments, while Exxon also seeks approval for the Uaru development.
In fact, $88 million was approved in Budget 2022 for a consultancy firm to review the Field Development Plan for Uaru, which if approved will be of Exxon’s fifth oil development in the Stabroek Block.
In January 2020, ExxonMobil announced that Uaru-1 was the 16th discovery in the Stabroek Block. The well encountered approximately 94 feet (29 metres) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir and was drilled in 6342 feet (1933 metres) of water.
In April 2021, Uaru-2 was announced by the oil giant. Drilling at Uaru-2 encountered approximately 120 feet (36.7 metres) of high-quality oil-bearing reservoirs including newly identified intervals below the original Uaru-1 discovery. The well was drilled in 5659 feet (1725 metres) of water and is located approximately 6.8 miles (11 kilometres) south of the Uaru-1 well.
The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometres). ExxonMobil affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEGPL) is operator and holds 45 per cent interest in the Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Limited holds 30 per cent interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds 25 per cent interest.
The Stabroek Block’s recoverable resource base is currently estimated at more than 10 billion oil-equivalent barrels and has the potential to support up to 10 projects.