Guyana Auctioning New Offshore Blocks By Q3 of 2022
The Government of Guyana plans to auction new blocks for offshore oil exploration by the third quarter of 2022, according to Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Jagdeo also stated that the government would be enforcing the ‘relinquishment clause’ in existing oil contracts.
“We’re hoping that latest, next year’s third, quarter, that we will be able to auction the new blocks. That requires us now to aggressively enforce the relinquishing provisions in all of the contracts so that, added to the existing pool of areas available, we will have now the relinquished areas which can then form part of the auction that will take place,” Jagdeo said.
Currently, supermajor ExxonMobil has operating stakes in the three oil blocks offshore Guyana with exploration activities underway, and in one case production.
Exxon’s affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana, is the operator of the 6.6 million acres Stabroek Block and holds a 45 percent interest.
Its operating partner Hess holds 30 percent interest, and the other operating partner CNOOC holds 25 percent interest.
Exxon also has a 35 percent operating interest in the Canje Block. Its partners are TotalEnergies with 35 percent, Canada’s JHI with 17.5 percent interest, and local company Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas with 12.5 percent interest.
According to estimates, this block could hold as much as 10 billion barrels of oil in total, and drilling is ongoing there. Exxon recently announced a new 12-well campaign there which is set to begin next year.
The Kaieteur Block, which holds a gross estimated prospective resource of 2.1 billion barrels of oil, is also operated by Exxon (35%) and Cataleya Energy (25%), Ratio Guyana (25%) and Hess (15%) are its partners.
Meanwhile, the joint venture partners in the Orinduik Block, operated by Tullow (60%), renewed their block license last month, with some changes in the Petroleum Agreement.
The 25 percent working interest previously held by TotalEnergies has been transferred to a new company – TOQAP Guyana – jointly owned by Total E&P Guyana (60%) and Qatar Petroleum (40%). The third partner is Eco Atlantic with 15 percent.
With these changes, the joint venture partners on the Orinduik Petroleum Agreement are Tullow Guyana with its 60 percent working interest, Eco Atlantic with 15 percent WI and TOQAP with a 25 percent working interest.
Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.
Published: 15-11-2021