THE government has once again extended the submission deadline for 14 offshore oil exploration blocks, as it continues to work on the regulatory framework and Petroleum Sharing Agreement (PSA) to support the country’s first competitive offshore oil-and-gas licensing round.

This was according to Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday, during his weekly press conference at the Office of the President.

“We plan to extend it [the auction], for another period. We will determine what period. It should not be for much of a time. But almost every one of the people who have indicated an interest so far in participating in the auction, they’ve been told and I think they appreciate that we are sticking with our commitment to have the framework law in place and the new PSA before the bids come in,” Dr. Jagdeo said.

The government, on Monday, released the draft Petroleum Activities Bill, and made it available for public consultations.

The Petroleum Activities Bill seeks to replace the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act 1986, and is part of efforts by the government to modernise the legal and regulatory framework related to the petroleum sector.

“We had a global firm that worked on this with enormous experience in this sector. We looked at similar framework legislation globally and a lot of the issues addressed in those modern pieces of legislation where we were deficient in our laws have been addressed. A lot of the issues will be dealt [with] subsequently, after the passage of the bill, through regulations,” Dr. Jagdeo said.
It was last December that the government launched the first auction for the development of 14 new oil blocks, which includes 11 in shallow water, and the other three in deep water. The blocks being put up for auction range in acreages from 1,000 sq. km to 3,000 sq. km.

There is a participation fee of US$20,000 for the bidding process for each block. Over the past few years, Guyana’s offshore basin has captured the attention of the global oil market participants and has been called a gateway to the world’s fastest-growing super basin.

Guyana’s offshore fields are estimated to have potential resources in excess of 25 billion barrels and estimated reserves in excess of 11 billion barrels.