Esso’s Guyana affiliate has re-emphasised its interest in exploring for oil offshore after initial efforts starting in 1999 were interrupted by the Suriname maritime dispute a year later.
The Government and Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd (EEPGL) yesterday signed a supplement to the company’s existing Petroleum Prospecting Licence and Petroleum Agreement, aligning the contract area to conform to the Guyana/Suriname maritime boundary and rescheduling the period during which the company’s work obligations are expected to be undertaken.
The agreement was signed at the Office of the President between President Bharrat Jagdeo and a representative of the company.
Esso is to immediately acquire regional 2D seismic and these surveys may be followed with 3D imaging methods, in an effort to identify possible targets for drilling, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) said in a release. It added that the decision point for drilling will be made if any suitable targets are identified.
In July 1999, EEPGL had signed a production sharing contract (PSC) with the Government of Guyana. This PSC covered the Stabroek Block, which Exxon was awarded during 1998. The Stabroek Block, licensed to Exxon, consisted of 17 million acres off the edge of the continental shelf. This was the largest block in terms of acreage to be explored
Seismic work had commenced but had to be postponed because of the Guyana/Suriname maritime border dispute. The boundary dispute has since been resolved in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Petroleum Manager of the GGMC, Newell Dennison had earlier this year told Stabroek News that though the properties of (oil exploration companies) Repsol YPF and CGX Energy Inc were intact post-resolution, Exxon lost a bit of their acreage. “We have to impose a grid that we use to determine the blocks,” Dennison said. To do this, the GGMC had worked with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commis-sion.
The release said that Esso is committed to actively advance the exploration programme.
