President Dr Irfaan Ali said that his government is satisfied with the response received from the just-concluded oil blocks auction which saw bids submitted for eight of the 14 blocks offshore Guyana.
He was at the time responding to a question asked during an event in Washington DC.
“We went out to auction at a time when major economies in the world are basically saying to oil producers ‘we’re not going to finance’ you…so we’re going to a market where capital is an issue, raising of capital is an issue. Many countries went to the same market and got no response to their auction. We went to this market with 14 blocks and we got response to eight blocks, we are very happy,” the Guyanese Head of State outlined.
“That is significant…that cannot be minimised in any way, shape or form,” he added.
Over the years, several of Guyana’s close bilateral partners have expressed interests in obtaining oil blocks here. However, there were no bids from any country. But the President noted that there are still avenues for collaboration with these nations in the oil and gas sector.
“There are many countries that have expressed a preference for government-to-government exploration and relationships on this issue,” President Ali said.
Some of these countries include India, Qatar and the Dominican Republic.
It is expected that the awarding of the new oil blocks will be done by the end of this year.
The 14 oil blocks that were up for tender included 11 in the shallow area and three in the deep-sea area, ranging from 1000 to 3000 square kilometres (sq km).
ExxonMobil is one of six oil companies that submitted bids. The other companies are SISPRO INC (Guyana); Total Energies EP Guyana BV; Qatar Energy International E&P LLC; Petronas E&P Overseas Ventures SDN BHD (Malaysia); Delcorp Inc Guyana and Watad Energy and Arabian Drillers of Saudi Arabia; Liberty Petroleum Corporation of the US and Ghana-based Cybele Energy Limited; International Group Investment Inc and Montego Energy SA (London).
