PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar and Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud on Monday met with the principals of Repsol at the Office of the President, to continue discussion on further exploration and technical work within the Georgetown Block.

They met with Mr. Joseba Murillas, Director, Latin America North Exploration, Mr. Allan Kean, Manager, LAN Guyana/Suriname/Trinidad Exploration and Mr. Giancarlo Ariza, Guyana Country Manager. The Repsol officials provided a brief update on their progress with results from the recently abandoned Jaguar One well.
Discussions also centred on proposals for Repsol continuing exploration efforts in the Georgetown Block.
Repsol is the operator for a consortium that includes Tullow Guyana B.V, YPF Guyana and CGX Guyana Inc., and collectively expended over US$200M while exploring in offshore Guyana.
The company’s officials were very encouraged by the results of the Jaguar One well despite its abandonment out of caution, giving regard to very high pressures encountered at intervals above target depth.
Further, the consortium has signalled definite plans to remain in the basin with a view to reassessing the portfolio of exploration in the contract area while continuing to examine the results of analysis from the Jaguar One well with a commitment to drill another exploration well targeting the same interval of interest as the Jaguar well.
Additionally, Repsol has also confirmed that they will continue to maximise local content in all possible aspects of their operations. In the recently concluded drilling project, an estimated US$17M was spent in this regard.
Meanwhile, directions have been issued to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission’s Petroleum Division to work with Repsol towards formalising arrangements to facilitate their seamless continuation in exploring the Georgetown Block. The current tenure for this section should expire in late November 2012.