Guyana Oil and Gas News

Residents of Houston Gardens/Plantation Houston Estates and surrounding communities have expressed grave concern about a proposal by an oil services company to store large quantities of chemicals at Industrial Site, Ruimveldt.

The government can easily control the impact of the absence of ring-fencing provisions in the agreement with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary by attaching conditions in each Petroleum Production Licence issued, according to commentator Christopher Ram.

Tullow Oil and Gas of the United Kingdom yesterday announced that it had spud its first well in the offshore Orinduik Block on Thurs-day and results are expected next month.

Introduction This column has had an extensive rest – more than half the year while more and more of the defects and inadequacies of the infamous “ExxonMobil” Petroleum Agreement (PA) have been exposed.

An energy auditing and management training programme is currently underway at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre that is aimed to equip local businesses and entrepreneurs with the tools to optimise their energy usage.

Canadian oil company Frontera’s recent payment of a US$33 million signing bonus for a 33% working interest in two blocks offshore Guyana without any confirmed commercial quantities of oil, should signal to government how much it lost when it renegotiated its Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary in 2016 and got a mere US$18 million.

Minster of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman has absolved himself of any responsibility for not expressing sooner that the lack of ring-fencing provisions in the Production Sharing Agreement with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary could negatively affect revenue earned by Guyana from the oil operations.

Pointing to what he said was a void in knowledge, a Houston, US-based Guyanese lawyer last week concluded a second oil and gas training conference and expressed disappointment at government’s disinterest in the forum.

ExxonMobil stood the expenses for Head of the Department of Energy Dr Mark Bynoe and First Lady Sandra Granger’s recent trip to Singapore for the commissioning of its Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, the Liza Destiny.

ExxonMobil’s “Liza Destiny,” the first oil production vessel that will be placed in Guyana’s waters, was yesterday officially dedicated by First Lady Sandra Granger at the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore.

With ExxonMobil having found 12 operable wells in the offshore Stabroek Block, the Guyana government is concerned that the absence of a ring-fencing arrangement could negatively affect revenue earned from its explorations.

(This is the fifth in a series of articles by Transparency Institute Guyana Inc on the Production Sharing Agreement signed between the Government of Guyana and Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil.)

As Guyana prepares for first oil early next year, British High Commissioner to Guyana Greg Quinn has urged politicians here to work together to ensure that the wealth garnered from the sector reaches all Guyanese in a tangible way.

The Department of Labour and immigration officials on Friday met with contractors in the oil and gas sector to sensitise them about labour requirements here.

With the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) embarking on a probe of how two small companies without the capacity to drill for oil were able to lock down prime offshore acreage near to ExxonMobil’s key oil find days before the 2015 general elections, the spotlight will likely be on the key decision maker, then Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud.

Canadian oil explorer Frontera Energy Corporation now has a 33.33 per cent working interest in fellow Canadian oil explorer CGX Energy Inc’s two offshore blocks after a joint venture agreement was completed last week.

Representatives of the Region One Council, coastal village councils and other agencies, recently participated in an oil spill demonstration at Waini Point, Shell Beach.

Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle has invited 27 oil and  gas contractors to a meeting on Friday to discuss the “basic element of employment relationship”, a statement from the Ministry of Social Protection said yesterday.

Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) president, Nicholas Boyer, says that the State Assets Recovery Agency’s (SARA) investigation into the award of oil blocks is a waste of time, given that there is no existing Petroleum Commission or other supporting regulatory system.

Guyana needs to get independent help to craft its plans for the oil and gas sector, while also building local capacity, the former head of Brazil’s oil and gas regulatory body Nelson Narciso Filho has said.