Two months after former government advisor on petroleum, Dr Jan Mangal called for an investigation into the awards of oil blocks near to Exxon-Mobil’s Stabroek Block, Director of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA), Professor Clive Thomas has revealed that such a probe is underway.
He made this disclosure in a recent interview with the New York-headquartered Bloomberg News. Stabroek News was unable to contact Thomas yesterday for a comment on the investigation.
“We’re investigating the issuance of the licenses, for example, and the various blocks,” Thomas was quoted as saying in an article published yesterday. “We’re building up a case. This is an area of investigation into how the blocks were allocated and the decisions that were made,” he further said. Based on Thomas’ comments SARA will be looking beyond the blocks awarded to Exxon. Aside from the Stabroek, Kaieteur and Canje which Exxon has control over, Orinduik block which Tullow Oil Plc signed up to explore in 2016 will also be investigated.
