The government has postponed the country’s first offshore oil blocks auction to sometime in August with no date set as yet. Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told Reuters on Friday Guyana has to finalise new terms of its oil and gas regulatory framework.
Jagdeo blames the postponement on the local government elections held last week. Notably, there has been three delays before to the 14 offshore blocks the government seeks to give the impression its intent is to recruit new explorers and reduce the influence of the ExxonMobil-led consortium.
Analysts have argued the remaining oil blocks are not as likely to produce the quantity of crude Exxon presently benefits from. One analyst told this publication “the sum total of what may come from the remaining 14 blocks will pose no competition to Exxon. So this talk about reducing Exxon’s influence is political gimmick.”
Exxon has discovered more than 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas and is producing some 380,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.
Meanwhile Jagdeo, who has responsibility for the oil and gas sector, said the government is tidying up terms of a model Production Sharing Agreement to guide future contracts.
Government said the new Petroleum Act will be posted on the Ministry of Natural Resources’ website https://nre.gov.gy/ this week. It is expected to be posted for two weeks to allow for consultation. The Opposition and other stakeholders said the time frame is not only insufficient but the manner in which consultation is being pursued will deny many the opportunity to have meaningful input.
Exxon has previously said it was awaiting the new contract terms to evaluate its participation.
