WITH an application filed to operate a bloc in the Guyana basin, Minexco Petroleum, a private junior oil and gas exploration and production company, is looking forward to the opportunity of becoming the newest addition to the oil search on Guyana’s shores.

The company that had conducted a five-day oil and gas training course for key local technicians last May has a presence in West Africa and northern South America, operating independently on deep water blocs and through joint ventures in other locations.
President Efroyim Hecht, who led a team to a meeting with President Donald Ramotar Wednesday, said the company prioritises high potential, low-risk opportunities which fit the description of the South American Atlantic basin.
A discovery in the Guyana maritime permit, approximately 150-kilometres offshore French Guiana in 2011 by Shell, through its Tullow oil joint venture operations, was confirmation of the basin’s value.
A United States geological survey had estimated the basin to hold an oil resource potential of 13.6 billion barrels of oil, prompting intense explorations by Repsol, CGX, Tullow Oil, YPF and Exxon Mobile.
CGX, a reputable Canada-based oil and gas exploration company which had announced that it had come up empty in the initial search last year, is taking another shot with Pacific Rubiales, a major shareholder, and hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars to be invested.