T&T agrees to help Guyana develop oil and gas sector

— MoU to be signed in November

The Governments of Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) are set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by November, which will see the twin island republic providing technical assistance to this country for the development of its oil and gas sector, the Trinidad Guardian newspaper has reported.
The newspaper quoted Trinidad’s Energy Minister Nicole Olivierre as saying she met with President David Granger and Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman in late August.
Minister Olivierre said President Granger asked for support and cooperation in the areas of education, with emphasis on engineering and technical studies, infrastructure development, and agriculture.
The MoU, according to Minister Olivierre, is being drafted and will be signed and executed in November, while a delegation representing Guyana’s Private and Public Sectors will visit that country to view the operations and facilities available there.

Options for monetising natural gas, commercial and fiscal arrangements in the oil and gas sector, learning from T&T in the development of local content and training of industry practitioners are some of the specific areas of interest, Olivierre revealed.
She added that Government will provide guidance to ensure that the Guyana Government does not make mistakes Trinidad would have made in developing its own oil and gas sector.
Texas-based oil and gas giant, ExxonMobil Corporation is currently conducting exploratory drilling for oil and gas in its Stabroek Block; a concession off Guyana’s coastland.
The company back in July 2016 had announced that drilling results from the Liza-2 well, the second exploration well in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana, confirmed a world-class discovery of oil with a recoverable resource of between 800 million and 1.4 billion oil-equivalent barrels.

“We are excited by the results of a production test of the Liza-2 well, which confirms the presence of high-quality oil from the same high-porosity sandstone reservoirs that we saw in the Liza-1 well completed in 2015… We, along with our co-venturers, look forward to continuing a strong partnership with the Government of Guyana to further evaluate the commercial potential for this exciting prospect,” said ExxonMobil President Steve Greenlee, in a statement.
However, earlier this month, ExxonMobil reported that its Skipjack well did not yield “commercial quantities of hydrocarbons” while exploring in its concession.
ExxonMobil’s local manager, Jeff Simmons, was quoted in sections of the local media confirming that the indeed the Skipjack well did not turn up the results expected.
ExxonMobil had however stated that it was continuing with plans to develop the Liza well with its declared capacity of between 800 million and 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent and also look for other possible targets for drilling.
Liza-2 hit more than 190 feet of net pay and caused ExxonMobil, along with partners Hess and CNOOC subsidiary Nexen, to boost their estimate of the recoverable oil in place at Liza.
In July, ExxonMobil submitted a development plan for Liza to Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency to begin the environmental review process.
That plan calls for a pair of rigs to drill development wells from two drill centres, each with a corresponding water injection site to the east.
Production will be sent to an FPSO with capacity of around 100,000 barrels of oil per day. Under that plan, first production from the field would come online sometime in 2020 or as late as 2021.