Natural Resources Minister says
  gov’t interested in having exploration activities begin as early as possible

MINISTER of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, on Tuesday said that the government is hoping to commence negotiations with those companies that recently secured oil blocks offshore Guyana.

The minister made those remarks during a press conference which was held at the Guyana Forestry Commission’s complex in Kingston.
According to Bharrat, following the announcement, the first step was to have the companies officially notified and written to in relation to the round of bidding.
He said: “We have officially written to them and indicated that we are going to start the negotiations as early as next week.”
The government hopes that negotiations will go well and all the companies could be awarded the blocks, provided that they are in a position to pay the signing bonus.
There is a minimum of US$10 million for the exploration licence for shallow-water blocks, while in the deep-water blocks, there is a minimum of US$20 million for the exploration licence.

He said that, that is one of the main criteria while the second happens to be the work programme and the resources to ensure that they could carry out the work programme. The companies, Bharrat added, have submitted the work programmes and have agreed to them in principle so nothing should change.
“We are going to hold them to that work programme because we want exploration activities to take place in these blocks as early as possible,” he remarked.
Bharrat said that they are aware that seismic and other studies have to be done by the companies, as the government wants exploration activities to commence as soon as possible.
Late last month, following the conclusion of the international licensing round 2022, several companies were announced as awardees of various oil blocks.
Guyanese-owned company, Sispro Inc. was awarded oil blocks S3 and D2; TotalEnergies EP Guyana B.V. in consortium with Qatar Energy International E&P LLC and Petronas E&P Overseas SDN BHD was awarded S4. Additionally, S5 was awarded to International Group Investment Inc.

Liberty Petroleum Corporation and Cybele Energy Limited got the S7 block while ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, Hess New Ventures Exploration Limited and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited were awarded S8.

The S10 block was awarded to International Group Investment Inc. and Delcorp Incorporated, while Watad Energy and Communications Ltd and Arabian Drilling Company won D1.