Guyana will issue four production sharing agreements (PSAs) in October under its first offshore licensing round, Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat said on Sunday.
Speaking on the Starting Point podcast, Bharrat said, “About four of those PSAs will be signed in a month’s time or so…yes, in October. We’ve already made contact with those companies.”
The Minister explained that the government has concluded negotiations with several groups of companies that placed successful bids. Among them is Sispro, a Guyanese firm founded by women. Two block awards to them were announced among the lot in October 2023. No block has been issued since then, with negotiations occurring over an extended period.
Bharrat said negotiations with Sispro for the shallow water block, named S3, have been completed, clearing the way for a contract signing next month, while the deepwater block is still in the negotiation phase.
While the Minister did not reveal the other upcoming awardees, a group of TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy and Petronas were the first to receive Cabinet approval for their Block S4 award since last year. However, the government had held off, arguing that it wanted to make all awards at the same time.
The auction closed in 2023 and was designed to diversify Guyana’s offshore oil sector, which is currently led by ExxonMobil’s consortium in the Stabroek Block.
