Six bids in for Guyana’s first oil block auction

Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 September 2023, 17:23 by Denis Chabrol

A Guyanese women-owned led company and ExxonMobil are among six separate expressions of interest in Guyana’s first ever auction for oil blocks offshore.

The bids were opened by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, after several push-back in deadlines that allowed for the passage of a new Petroleum Act and the drafting of a new model Production Sharing Agreement.

There were no immediately available details concerning which of the 11 shallow or three deep sea areas the companies said told NPTAB they were interested in.

In preliminary documents released to the media, the Board said ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, Hess New Ventures and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited was among those interested in exploring for oil.

The others are:

1. SISPRO INC (Guyana), a Guyanese women-owned oil and gas company which is chaired by Dr. Melissa Varswyk. Other team members are Secretary and Executive Director, Abbigale Loncke- Watson; Executive Director, Ayodele Dalgety-Dean, and Executive Director, Dee George.

2. Total Energies EP Guyana BV; Qatar Energy International E&P LLC; Petronas E&P Overseas Ventures SDN BHD  (Malaysia)

3. Delcorp Inc Guyana; and both Saudia Arabia-based Watad Energy, and Arabian Drillers.

4.Liberty Petroleum Corporation, Arizona United States, and the Ghana-headquartered Cybele Energy Limited (Ghana)

5. International Group Investment Inc and Montego Energy SA (London)

The Ministry of Natural Resources said the six bids would now be evaluated from September 18 to October 6 to pave the way for negotiations from October 10 to 27 and the eventual award of contracts on November 1.