Nothing unusual about ExxonMobil trip – Minister Jordan

The recent trip of a batch of senior ministers to the ExxonMobil Headquarters in Houston, Texas has been defended with the statement that nothing was unusual about the visit, as there will be annual engagements of a comprehensive nature in preparation for ‘first oil’ in 2020.
Senior Finance Minister Winston Jordan told the media on Monday that the visit was made by a sub-committee created by Cabinet and dubbed ‘the quintet-plus-one’. That sub-committee comprised himself, as Senior Finance Minister; Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman; Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge; Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson; Business Minister Dominic Gaskin, and Presidential Advisor Dr. Jan Mangal.
“Essentially we are mandated to have engagements with Exxon going forward as it relates to petroleum exploration and revenues; so these engagements are ongoing. What we would like to do is move them from informality to formality, so they would occur as they should, or (as) circumstances warrant,” Jordan explained.
Jordan said these visits should take place twice annually, and Government has suggested that one trip should be made to ExxonMobil Headquarters and the second meeting would take place right here in Guyana.
“It’s not that we are spying on each other, but we must keep our friends close,” he explained.
Asked to disclose what was discussed at the meeting, Jordan did not go into specifics, but gave a general explanation. “It was oil and gas matters. Come on! I mean, it’s in the interest of the nation, where oil and gas matters with everything to do with production and making sure we are on target (was discussed). The level of investment being made…,” he continued.
Jordan said that in the two-day visit — from August 10 to 11 — the meetings and discussions were intense, and the team from Guyana had opportunity to get first-hand experience of how the oil and gas sector operates. “So it wasn’t any deal-making, (nor was there) any need to have technical officers and so on. This was ‘the quintet-plus-one’. When technical officers are required, we will have technical officers there.”
A more detailed press statement from the Natural Resources Ministry on Monday said the team was updated on developments with the Liza Phases 1 and 2. The Liza Phase 1 is scheduled to commence production in 2020, and will hope to recover approximately 500 million barrels of oil at a rate of 120,000 barrels per day (bpd); while the Liza Phase 2 is expected to recover the remaining resource in the Liza field in 2023 and beyond.
Contracts have been awarded for the floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, and the sub-sea infrastructure and connections necessary for production in deep sea.

The Ministers were also briefed on, and engaged in, discussions on the advancements of the proposed project to utilise available natural gas for energy generation by the Guyana Power and Light, and scrutinised the various financial and fiscal models that would emerge from oil revenues in the post-2020 period.
Both sides expressed confidence and satisfaction in the process, and undertook to have follow-up discussions on the natural gas project within two months.
Several Ministers had attended similar briefings in 2016, and it was decided then to have annual engagements of a comprehensive nature in preparation for ‘first oil’ in 2020 and beyond.
These meetings follow closely on the Government of Guyana awarding, in June 2017, a Production Licence for development of Phase 1 of the Lisa Field to ExxonMobil and partners; Hess’ and CNOOC Nexen’s subsequent Final Investment Decision (FID), and the quantification of petroleum in the Payara well in July 2017.
Both sides expressed confidence and satisfaction in the process, and undertook to have follow-up discussions on the natural gas project within two months.
Government is a 50 per cent partner with ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC Nexen for the development of the off-shore Stabroek Block in which petroleum has been discovered.