Guyana is preparing to invite, in the coming week, the winning bidders in its first-ever offshore licensing round to commence negotiations, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said during an October 26 press conference. The winners were those which submitted the most substantially responsive bids, when compared to the requirements Guyana had stipulated. They will have the latitude to pursue, through talks with the government and its consultants, minor changes to the terms in Guyana’s model petroleum agreement.
The government had previously scheduled negotiations to occur during a 17-day period in October, with awards set on November 1. However, given the late start, negotiations are expected to commence at the start of November.
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“We’ll start [negotiations] in earnest now, but I don’t want to put pressure on our people,” Jagdeo stated, when asked to provide new timelines for negotiations and contract signings.
He added, “They need to do proper due diligence. They need to make sure that the government’s interests are taken care of, and so, our lawyers and others would be addressing this…”
While these winning groups have been identified, Jagdeo warned that talks could break down with the groups if the changes they pursue are too extreme.
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“ExxonMobil said they’re not prepared to sign the [production sharing agreement as it] is currently structured. [They said] it’s too stringent..”
He said the fiscal terms are not going to change, nor will major terms pertaining to transparency and accountability, but that government is open to minor amendments.
“We are not going to weaken the PSA to suit ExxonMobil… If they do not want to sign it, fine,” the Vice President had said during his press conference the week prior.
He said that if talks break down with any winning bidder, the government would be open to pursuing talks with the next most responsive bidder for a block, as the case may be.
The winning bidders are as follows:
