Guyana Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo is adamant that CGX Energy’s license for the Corentyne Block has expired. The company and its joint venture partner, Frontera Energy, said Thursday that they believe their license still stands.
A 60-day clock is ticking toward arbitration if the two sides do not resolve the dispute amicably through negotiations. But Jagdeo said he is not worried about the matter going there.
“As far as we are concerned, the legal advice is that the license lapsed because of the conditions under the license and the timeline for the license itself. That’s our position,” the Vice President said during a December 12 press conference in Georgetown.
This follows CGX’s earlier release that it has sent the government a letter activating the 60-day period to “amicably resolve all disputes via negotiation.”
The Corentyne Block petroleum agreement says a party has the right to be heard by an arbitrator or sole expert if the period elapses without a resolution.
Jagdeo said he has not seen the letter but that the government’s lawyers would handle it.
CGX had in June submitted a notice of potential commercial interest in its Wei-1 discovery, seeking time to appraise it. However, the government is unconvinced that CGX can find the money and a capable partner to proceed, and said months ago that it is not inclined to grant the request.
CGX said Thursday that the government did not formally issue a communication to it regarding the status of the Corentyne license.
Jagdeo said at his press conference, “If it says two years your license is approved for, if you don’t get an approval for extension, that means, consistent with the law of the country, it’s done.”
He also said, “We’re not worried about going to court.”
CGX has made two discoveries at the Kawa-1 and Wei-1 wells of the Corentyne Block. The joint venture said in December last year that the Maastrichtian horizon of the north Corentyne area is estimated to have a gross prospective resource of between 514 and 628 million barrels of oil equivalent across the two discoveries, based on independent evaluations. They have said this horizon appears to be the best bet for a fast-tracked development that could begin with a final investment decision in 2026 and first production in 2030. It would be the first offshore development outside of the ExxonMobil-operated Stabroek Block.
