The offloading of Guyana’s 3rd million-barrel oil cargo from the Liza Destiny FPSO to Norwegian flag-carrier SKS SPEY concluded on Sunday, marking the final lift under the current contract the country has with Shell Western Supply and Trading Limited.
Brent was trading around $44 per barrel this weekend, up from the mid $30 range when Guyana lifted its second cargo back in May.
S&P Global Platts has said according to a market source, the cargoes to Shell are being traded around minus $1.50/b and minus $2.00/b versus Dated Brent on an FOB basis. Dated Brent refers to physical cargoes of crude oil that have been assigned specific delivery dates.
The newly produced Liza crude has a quality of 32.1° API gravity and 0.51% sulfur, according to ExxonMobil’s assay library. This light to medium sweet crude is attracting the interest of refineries in the US Gulf Coast (USGC), Europe and China.
The Department of Energy said in June it was one step closer to hiring a firm to market Guyana’s share of Liza Crude on a long-term basis. Nineteen companies, including Shell, were shortlisted. One is expected to be appointed soon on a 12-month contractual basis.
Guyana’s first million-barrel oil cargo was sold at around US$55 per barrel and the second lift at approximately US$35 per barrel. Together with royalty from oil produced and sold to date, the total deposited so far in the Natural Resources Fund account amounts to almost US$100 million, plus interest.
Guyana is expected to have two more lifts of 1 million barrels each for the remainder of 2020.
