MINISTER of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat on Wednesday said that the government has made no other decisions in relation to CGX Energy Inc.’s exploration licence.
Bharrat disclosed this at the Ministry of Natural Resources mid-year press conference, where he provided an update on the sector to members of the media.

Speaking on the issue of an extension of the exploration licence granted to CGX Energy Inc. and Frontera Energy Corporation, joint venture partners in the Corentyne Block offshore Guyana, he said that the same position expressed by Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo recently remains the position of the government.

“We have not made any other decision besides what was mentioned by the Vice President that is that the licence expired, CGX licence has expired, that is their exploration licence,” he explained.
As such, he told the gathering that the company was given time for their appraisal programme as stipulated by the law and an extension of time as there was a discovery of commercial possibility.
He said: “They were given time for their appraisal programme because the law stipulates time and extension to time for them once there’s a discovery of commercial possibility that time must be given for the appraisal, that time too has expired on the 28th of June this year so as it is now there is no valid licence held by CGX.”

Recently, the Vice President said that Cabinet is highly unlikely to extend the company’s exploration licence.
While the company had its hopes for additional time to assess prospects here, the government remains cautious even as the company was given some time to return with updates; they had provided insufficient information.
As such, Dr. Jagdeo said, “We are not inclined to give any extension, but cabinet still wants some additional information.”

CGX had retained a small portion of the Corentyne Block, having relinquished much of it, as per its exploration agreement with the government.
In 2023, CGX discovered oil at its Wei-1 well, located some 14 kilometres west of the Kawa-1 discovery within the block. Although oil was found at Kawa-1 in January 2022, CGX and Frontera chose to focus on the Wei-1 well.
Further drilling in the Corentyne Block was said to depend on positive results at Wei-1, with the joint venture reportedly having no further obligations beyond this well.