Guyana’s Corentyne Block has returned to state hands, Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat confirmed on Aug. 14. The asset was held by CGX Energy as operator in partnership with Frontera Energy.
“CGX license has expired. There is no license held by CGX presently,” the Minister said. “As it is, they don’t have a license and the Corentyne Block is basically with the State.”
The exploration license for the block ended in July. But just days before, CGX had filed a notice of potential commercial interest in the second of its two discoveries in the license area. If the government had accepted this, it would have given CGX and Frontera more time to appraise the discovery made at the Wei-1 well.
But the government was not so inclined.
After meeting with CGX, the Ministry of Natural Resources, according to Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, did not consider the company’s justifications satisfactory. The company was unable to speak to its ability to finance any future Corentyne Block operations or having a capable partner to do same. And those were just a few of the questions CGX could not satisfy.
And according to Mr. Bharrat, the government is in no rush to hand the asset back to the company.
“There is no timeframe as to our discussions and a decision for them…it’s not us being in any hurry to give to CGX a renewal that they seek or whatever the case is,” he added.
This is not the first time CGX submitted a notice of potential commercial interest in a discovery. When its license period was due to run out in 2022, the company sought an extension, claiming potential commercial interest in the Kawa-1 discovery. It had made plans to drill the Wei-1 well but had delays and needed the extra time. The company had to relinquish most of the block’s original acreage, only keeping the area of interest.
