Guyana Oil and Gas News

Former Minister of Public Infrastructure and the Opposition’s shadow Minister of Oil and Gas David Patterson thinks that the government’s much touted gas-to-shore project is ill-conceived and if realized will not deliver what has been promised.

Introduction Today’s column is the fourth in my recently introduced sub-series of columns on the topic of Guyana Government Take and Reported Reserves This is due to the private urgings of several readers who have been pressing me to re-visit my previous columns on this topic.

ExxonMobil has found itself in hot water after improperly dismissing two of its employees in violation of several statutes of the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Act.

(Argus Media)  US President Joe Biden and his deputies are trading barbs with ExxonMobil and other refiners over what the administration sees as inflated gasoline prices caused by insufficient domestic inventories.

President Irfaan Ali has promised to check on the status of Guyana’s first audit of the oil and gas sector which was conducted by the United Kingdom-based HIS Markit on the US$460 million pre-contract costs.

Introduction As readers are aware, I usually indicate well beforehand the topics I intend to address over an extended period, going forward.

Following concerns raised about its shortage of details on the requirements for prospective marketers for its oil, government yesterday released the criteria and also announced that the contracted period would be for one year.

-calls for increased cost of carbon credits While pointing out that the world is currently faced with an energy crisis with no end in the near future, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali told the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly that fossil fuels are a necessary means of energy while the world transitions to more sustainable means.

Two environmental activists have filed a suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to quash the permit it issued for the ExxonMobil Guyana-led Liza Phase 1 oil project in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana.

Government has announced that it is looking for marketers of oil from the Liza 1 and Liza 2 platforms but for a second time has not released to the public information on the requirements or the specific period the contract would cover.

Dear Editor, In a SN article dated 8/15/2022 and captioned, ‘Guyana set to receive 12 lifts of profit oil for 2022 – Ministry’, it is reported ‘…that the expected total production of oil in 2022 is 93.6 million barrels of oil… (from which) …Guyana will get an estimated 12 lifts of one million barrels each, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources.’.

Dear Editor, The VP has made it very clear that his PPP Government will not renegotiate the worst oil contract in the world signed by the PNC.

With the disclosure that the David Granger-led government and the ExxonMobil Guyana and its partners amended the controversial 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), main opposition spokesman on the oil and gas sector David Patterson has said that while it is proof that the existing contract can be renegotiated, it requires the necessary political will.

Introduction Four weeks ago, I had substituted my scheduled re-visit of the Buxton Proposal and its recommendations, for a more comprehensive appraisal of the premier position, which I have accorded to the goal of poverty reduction in the spending of Guyana’s expected windfall petroleum revenues and earnings.

Introduction Last week’s column used the World Bank’s systematic country diagnostic, SCD, of Guyana, to unravel the embedded obstacles to the country’s lack of inclusive development along with the grim persistence of poverty up to the advent of its windfall oil finds in 2015.

Joint Venture partners CGX and Frontera have received environmental authorization to spud the Wei-1 exploration well at the Corentyne block offshore Guyana.

Government wants local participation in the planned auction of available offshore oil blocks and is hoping for help from the United States with the process.

Introduction Last week’s column asserted that, logically, any serious critique of Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund, NRF, ought to be pursued at two hierarchical levels of abstraction.

The Fifth Circuit of the US court on August 3rd denied ExxonMobil’s bid for a US$1 billion tax refund for its oil-and-gas agreements with Qatar and Malaysia.

The Environmental Assessment Board (EAB) while upholding the EPA’s decisions not to have impact surveys for ExxonMobil’s planned exploration in the offshore Canje and Kaieteur blocks, has ordered the oil company to conduct an environmental study looking at cumulative impacts of offshore activities.