No immediate plans for Corentyne Block – Natural Resources Minister

– says Govt is open to working with CGX but it will have to be with a new licence

With CGX Energy Inc.’s prospecting licence for the Corentyne Block offshore Guyana having expired earlier this year, the Guyana Government is yet to decide on how to proceed with the block that has now become available.
This is according to Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat, who recently told the Guyana Times that there are “no immediate plans” for the Corentyne Block.
“We haven’t made a decision as to how we will move forward with the Corentyne Block with the CGX licence being up,” the Minister related.

Back in March, it was announced that the petroleum prospecting licence for the Corentyne Block, which was held by Canadian-based CGX and its joint venture partner, Frontera Energy, had expired since June 2024.
The Guyana Government had, in February 2025, given the Canadian joint venturers a 30-day notice that they would once and for all be evicted from the Corentyne Block, where they had made two oil discoveries offshore. This was after the two companies previously benefited from an extension and requested another one to do more work on the block.
The administration and this CGX/Frontera partnership have been in disagreement over the status of the Corentyne Block, which the partnership had initially undertaken to develop but failed to do before the licence period ran out. While the Government has said the partners no longer hold a licence for the block due to a lack of development, the companies have asserted otherwise.
The laws in Guyana allow the Government to issue 10-year exploration contracts, and if, in the event, there is a discovery and the company indicates to the Government that there is a discovery of commercial interests, then the Government is obligated in a way to extend the time for additional appraisal work to determine or to quantify the amount of hydrocarbon that is there and to determine whether it can actually lead to production.
CGX was given a licence for ten years, as well as the additional time given for further appraisal work to determine whether they could produce oil in that block at that point in time.
In fact, CGX and Frontera continued to reject the Government’s claims that the licence expired in June 2024, saying in an August 1, 2025, statement that a meeting is likely to be held this month (October) between the Government and the JV partners on the matter.
But Minister Bharrat told this newspaper last week that such talks would not see a renewal of the Corentyne Block licence.
“The Government of Guyana maintains its position that the licence has come to an end. It’s not that we severed the licence… or relations with CGX; it’s just that the licence came to an end, unfortunately. We would love to work with every company, including CGX. We don’t have any issue with CGX, but it’s just that the licence came to an end,” he stated.
According to the Natural Resources Minister, “The only talks [between the Government and the JV partners] can be for the application for a new license because there is no provision in the law for an extension to the current license, unfortunately. So, the only thing that they can do is to reapply for a new licence.”
However, Minister Bharrat could not say whether CGX/Frontera would be able to get back the Corentyne Block even if they reapply for a new prospecting licence.
“That’s a tough position for me to say,” the Natural Resources Minister told the Guyana Times recently, adding, “…But once they reach the criteria, I guess they would be considered like any other company. And taking into consideration, they were already in the block too. But yeah, they would have to go through the process like any other company.”
CGX Energy Inc, a Canadian-based oil and gas company, had said in 2021/2022 that it had successfully drilled the Kawa-1 well in the eastern channel sand complex of the northern segment of the Corentyne block.
In 2023, the joint venture partners had successfully drilled the Wei-1 well, the second well in the Corentyne Block, as part of their appraisal programme for the Kawa-1 discovery, which ended on June 28, 2024. That drilling exercise had fulfilled the operators’ obligation under Phase Two of the Second Renewal Period of the original 10-year licence. However, the company has since not progressed towards fully developing the potential of the block.
Back in June 2024, CGX and Frontera had announced that they had submitted a “Notice of Potential Commercial Interest” for the Wei-1 discovery to the Guyana Government, which preserves their interests in the Petroleum Prospecting Licence for the Corentyne Block, offshore Guyana.
However, that move was seen by some as a last-ditch effort to avoid having to relinquish their acreage in the Block. In 2024, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had also pointed out that if the joint venture partners wanted to pursue a development offshore in Guyana, then they needed to detail that project and prove financing prospects.
Already, CGX has had to give up two other blocks offshore Guyana, along with parts of the Corentyne Block, after failing to develop them as per its agreement with the Guyana Government.
Meanwhile, in its financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis for the second quarter of 2025 issued on August 13, 2025, CGX reported an impairment loss of $56.4 million on its exploration and evaluation assets related to the Corentyne Block.
“Although all contractual requirements of the Company have been met and an external legal assessment determined that the Company’s interests in the licences and agreements for the Corentyne block remain valid, the GoG’s [Government of Guyana] positions…have restricted the Company’s ability to develop activities under those licences and agreements. This situation has led to uncertainty regarding the asset’s future development and constituted an impairment indicator. Consequently, the company recognised an impairment of $56.4 million in its income statement, and the Corentyne E&E asset’s carrying value as of June 30, 2025, is $Nil (December 31, 2024, $56.2 million),” the statement detailed.
Nevertheless, the Joint Venture said, “…it remains firmly of the view that its interests in, and the licence for, the Corentyne block remain in place and in good standing and that the Petroleum Agreement has not been terminated. The Joint Venture remains committed to working with the GoG to resolve these issues amicably, while preparing to assert and protect our legal and contractual rights through all available legal remedies, as necessary.”