Guyana plans to sell its own crude

Last Updated on Thursday, 2 October 2025, 21:41 by Writer

President Irfaan Ali on Thursday announced that Guyana would be taking steps to sell its own crude, and would initially hire those with the experience to do so until the country puts all of the arrangements in place.

Addressing a Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) breakfast forum titled “Energy Insights”, he said the domestic private sector would be part of the plan to get into crude trading.

“I will be working with the local, private sector and international partners to ensure that we develop our capability and capacity in crude oil trading. We must be able to trade our crude oil from Guyana with the infrastructure, with the human capital and with the market skills,” he said.

Dr Ali said crude oil trading would create “enormous opportunities” for Guyana, and so in order to get into the business in the shortest possible time, an experienced crude oil trader would be contracted to do so and share its expertise. He said that approach would set the stage for Guyana to trade its crude.

“We have to short-circuit this so we have to get those who have already done it for other countries to work with us in transferring the knowledge, maybe to enter a partnership for the next 345 years until we get the experience to do it on our own,” the Guyanese leader told industry stakeholders.

Guyana’s oil production is expected to soar from 650,000 barrels per day currently to about 1.2 million barrels per day by 2030.

Through a competitive bidding system, Guyana hires a crude marketing firm for its 50 percent share of the profit from oil from the Stabroek Block.

The President’s announcement came minutes after ExxonMobil Guyana’s Production Manager, Huzefa Ali told attendees that the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, One Guyana, that is pumping oil from Yellowtail, would reach nameplate capacity of 250,000 barrels per day in another month. That vessel began production in August.

Mr Ali also said efforts were underway to bring the eighth project, Longtail, on board. Bearing a significant natural gas deposit, ExxonMobil said Longtail could potentially supply that hydrocarbon for a second power plant, an alumina plant, a fertiliser plant and a data center in Berbice.

“I will highlight project number eight, which we expect to be Longtail, is also well progressed in terms of regulatory reviews and discussions for further discussion,” he said.

Mr Ali also said ExxonMobil was advancing plans to determine the actual amount of gas that is deposited in Longtail. “We are well on our way to appraise those resources and then also take that to the next step, which is consider what is the most valuable development concept that brings the highest value for the people of Guyana, for the Government of Guyana, and for the other stakeholders,” he said.

ExxonMobil recently made its final investment decision (FID) on project Hammerhead.