THE Canadian-based oil and gas exploration company CGX Energy Inc has been granted two new petroleum prospecting licenses (PPLs) from the Government of Guyana; one is for exploring and drilling for oil offshore the Demerara Coast and the other is for onshore explorations in Berbice.

The two are in addition to one issued in November last year for drilling offshore the Corentyne, bringing the CGX PPLs to three in total.
The new licenses both came into effect from Tuesday last, and are renewable for up to ten years after their four-year life has expired, the company disclosed.
Of the two licenses, one has been granted to CGX Resources Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CGX; and the other has been granted to ON Energy Inc. (‘ON Energy’), a 62%-owned subsidiary of CGX.
CGX Officials disclosed that the new Demerara petroleum agreement (‘Demerara PA’) and petroleum prospecting license (‘Demerara PPL’) apply to the former offshore portion of the Annex PPL covering 3,975 square kilometres, which were a subset of the company’s original Corentyne Petroleum Agreement.
Under the terms of the new Demerara PA, and during the initial period of four years, CGX has an obligation to conduct a 3D seismic survey comprising a minimum of 1,000 square kilometres, and to drill one exploration well.
The new Berbice petroleum agreement (‘Berbice PA’) and petroleum prospecting license (‘Berbice PPL’) apply to the former Berbice license comprising 1,566 square kilometres and the former onshore portion of the company’s original Corentyne Petroleum Agreement comprising 1,729 square kilometers, for total onshore acreage of 3,295 square kilometres.
Under the terms of the new Berbice PA, and during the initial period of four years, ON Energy has an obligation to conduct an airborne survey comprising a minimum of 1,000 square kilometers, and either conduct a 2D seismic survey comprising a minimum of 100 square kilometres or drill one exploration well.
Kerry Sully, President and CEO of CGX, stated: “CGX has identified leads on the Demerara PA that will require 3D seismic to enhance to prospect status.
The license straddles a portion of the current continental shelf and is updip (at a higher level) from a 3D seismic programme recently shot by Exxon and Shell in the adjoining Stabroek PA.
On the Berbice PA, the main exploration targets are stratigraphic traps similar to the Tambaredjo and Calcutta heavy-oil fields onshore Suriname.
Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname N.V. CGX has said there is an estimated original oil-in-place of more than a billion barrels in these fields, with remaining proven reserves at the end of 2011 of 77 million barrels after 30 years of production.
In November last year, CGX was issued with a new Corentyne petroleum agreement (‘Corentyne PA’) and petroleum prospecting license (‘Corentyne PPL’) for offshore Guyana, effective  November 27, 2012, renewable after four years for up to ten years.
Guyanese Professor Dr. Suresh Narine, Executive Chairman of CGX, said: “Our acreage position in the basin on the Corentyne PA issued in November 2012, and these new licenses, position CGX with a diversity of exciting prospects, which means we will be aggressively engaged in the basin for some time to come.”
In June 2000, a jack-up drilling rig leased by CGX from an American drilling contractor and operating under license from the Government of Guyana was forced off its Eagle drilling location by gunboats from the Surinamese navy, in contravention to the United Nations Convention on the Law of The Sea (UNCLOS).
The Government of Guyana formally commenced binding dispute settlement procedures against Suriname under UNCLOS in 2004, and won the case in September 2007, allowing CGX to resume exploration.
CGX drilled a well named Eagle Well in the Guyana/Suriname Basin in May last year, but did not find oil. The Eagle-1 well was initially budgeted for 60 days of drilling, but experienced weather delays and mechanical issues which extended operations for an approximate additional 30 days.
The initial cost estimate for the Eagle-1 well was $55 million; however, with the delays, the Eagle-1 well cost $71 million.
Despite this setback CGX Officials shortly after declared that the company, which has Guyanese on its Board of Directors, remained committed to the task of exploring for and finding oil in its PPLs in Guyana.
CGX is a Canadian-based oil and gas exploration company focused on the exploration of oil in the Guyana-Suriname Basin, an area in which the United States Geological Survey estimated a P-mean oil resource potential of 13.6 billion barrels in their Assessment of Undiscovered Conventional Oil and Gas Resources of South America and the Caribbean, 2012. (Clifford Stanley)