Some of the groups Guyana identified as awardees after the country’s first offshore auction, may not end up receiving the blocks.
Guyana Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said they “have difficulties finding the right partners and raising the fees.” The government had set minimum bids at US$10 million for each of the shallow water blocks and US$20 million for the deepwater blocks in the ultra-deep Area C.
“If they can’t do so, we’re not going to conclude with them. We might just have to abandon the process,” he explained.
These groups, and the blocks they were awarded, are as follows:
S3 – Sispro Inc.
S5 – International Group Investment Inc. and Montego Energy
S7 – Liberty Petroleum Corporation and Cybele Energy
S10 – International Group Investment Inc. and Montego Energy
D1 – Delcorp Inc., Watad Energy and Arabian Drillers
D2 – Sispro Inc.
Aside from those, two groups including oil majors ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies are in different stages.
TotalEnergies, Petronas and QatarEnergy had won the Block S4, and is the only group for whom the award has been approved by Guyana’s Cabinet of Ministers. “The discussions are ongoing but I think they’re nearing completion,” Jagdeo said.
Another group, including ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC, have not moved forward because of a lack of consensus on some non-fiscal terms, Jagdeo reminded. They had been awarded Block S8.
The government announced the awards since October 2023 but has not signed contracts yet.
Jagdeo said it is not the government’s management of the auction that has stretched talks out, but rather, a circumstance of the current era. “The capacity to finance exploration activities at this stage has been diminished seriously globally,” Jagdeo said, adding that there are many auctions ongoing around the world.
He said Guyana’s new fiscal terms, though attractive, are not as lucrative as the terms granted to the Stabroek Block consortium, and that this compounds the current state of affairs.
