With Guyana’s Petroleum Activities Bill 2023 now awaiting presidential assent to formally become the nation’s new oil law, regulators have set their eyes on conquering a new mission—the completion of a National Gas Strategy. This was recently confirmed by Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.
“We are moving ahead on the gas strategy because that was a promise,” the chief policy maker said at a recent press conference. The official recalled that authorities had committed to completing this crucial document after passing a modernised legislation for the oil sector and actualising its first oil blocks licensing round.
“We may explore the market regarding our gas resources and see what interest there is,” he said, noting that it is incumbent on the state to do its own ground work instead of waiting on the ExxonMobil-led consortium which operates the Stabroek Block.
The Vice President alluded that the monetisation of the nation’s gas reserves may not be a priority for Exxon as it is working aggressively to bring three of its five sanctioned oil projects on stream. The American multinational already has two projects in operation which are producing approximately 390,000 barrels of oil per day.
In the Stabroek block which stretches a total of 6.6 million acres, Exxon has unlocked significant gas resources, currently to the tune of 17 trillion cubic feet. This amounts to a quarter of the 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels discovered by ExxonMobil Guyana. Lots more could be proven in the next four years.
The Vice President said authorities are eager to explore the interest of the global market in these resources which could support the build out of a petrochemicals industry. “That could yield significant value to Guyana so we started activating that,” the official said. To support its new mission, Jagdeo said Exxon is being engaged to strengthen data collection and verification.
