Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, says he is excited by the interest being shown by foreign companies looking to tap into the prospects of the country’s oil and gas sector.
He made specific mention of US supermajor, Chevron, which has signaled its interest to Guyana authorities to establish an offshore presence.
Mr. Trotman, in an invited comment on Monday, told OilNOW, “It is a very good proposal and it shows that Chevron, which is a world class company, has very good interest in coming into Guyana.”
Trotman said he will be approaching Cabinet shortly to examine Chevron’s quest to acquire offshore acreage. “Chevron has put in a very good application for some acreage, which is to be considered and I will be asking cabinet in a few weeks for some guidance on that.”
Since the initial 2015 oil discovery by ExxonMobil in the prolific Liza field off the Guyana coast, the company, in partnership with Hess and Nexen, has to date made a total of five discoveries in Guyana. Exxon’s good fortune has served to derisk the Guyana-Suriname basin leading to increased exploration activities by a number of other companies, both offshore Guyana and Suriname.
Total recently moved towards entering an agreement with Eco Atlantic on the Orinduik prospect offshore Guyana and Tullow Oil is leading efforts to strike it big offshore Suriname at the Araku oil prospect on Block 54.
The United States Geological Survey says an estimated 13.6 billion barrels of oil and 32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could lie in the Guyana-Suriname Basin, making it the 2nd most prospective, underexplored offshore oil basins in the world.
