– to be presented before parliamentary recess

GOVERNMENT’S green paper on management of the emerging oil-and gas- industry will soon be reviewed by Cabinet before it is tabled in the National Assembly.

The paper was reviewed once, but is to be reviewed again by Cabinet at its next meeting, said Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, in an invited comment on Friday.

He said that government hopes to finalise the paper and present it at the last sitting of the National Assembly before the parliamentary recess.

“On the other hand, the bill for the Natural Resource Fund/Sovereign Wealth Fund is with the AG’s Chambers where it will be put into legal language,” Jordan said, adding that they are working hard to ensure that it is tabled before the end of this year.

After drafting the Bill, the Attorney General, Basil Williams, will pass it on to Cabinet where it will be reviewed and then tabled in the National Assembly.

It was reported in sections of the media that Guyana intends to spend the billions of dollars that is expected from oil production in the coming years, in the context of its Green State Development Strategy (GSDS).

The GSDS will guide Guyana’s economic and sociocultural development over the next 15 years. The objective of the strategy is to reorient and diversify Guyana’s economy, reducing reliance on traditional sectors and opening up new, sustainable income and investment opportunities in higher value adding and higher growth sectors.

Experts had forecast that Guyana will earn as much as US$380 million annually from royalties in the first three years of oil production, beginning in 2020 at 120,000 barrels per day from Liza Phase 1. Based on seven other oil discoveries offshore Guyana, ExxonMobil forecasts daily production at 500,000 barrels in another five years.

Guyana’s first development, Liza Phase 1, will use a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel to produce 120,000 barrels of oil per day, starting by early 2020. Liza Phase 2, which is targeted for sanctioning by the end of this year, will use an FPSO vessel designed to produce up to 220,000 barrels of oil per day and is expected to be producing by mid-2022.

ExxonMobil said on Monday that it has increased its estimate of the discovered recoverable resources for the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana to more than four billion oil-equivalent barrels and has advanced its evaluation to support a third phase of development and consideration of two additional phases.

The collective discoveries on the Stabroek Block to date have established the potential for up to five FPSOs producing over 750,000 barrels per day by 2025. There is potential for additional production from significant undrilled targets and plans for rapid exploration and appraisal drilling, including at the Ranger discovery.