Minister of Natural Resources and the Envi-ronment Robert Persaud has assured the principals of petroleum companies operating in Guyana that the country is committed to a peaceful resolution to Venezuela’s forced removal of survey ship Teknik Perdana on assignment for Anadarko Petrleum Corporation in October.
The minister met the companies in the United States over the weekend, where it was concluded that offshore drilling might commence by early 2015. Persaud was accompanied by Petroleum Manager of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Newell Dennison.
The meeting was held against the backdrop that Guyana has issued petroleum prospecting licences for exploration activities by petroleum companies in the offshore, coastal, near shore, deep water and ultra-deep waters of Guyana and within Guyana maritime areas.
Executives of CGX Resources Inc, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd and Repsol Exploracion Guyana SA were in attendance along with new venture company Ratio Petroleum.
According to statement from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, the minister told the meeting that Guyana will preserve its rights of sovereignty “guaranteed under international laws and conventions.”
According to the statement, the petroleum companies shared their operational experiences in Guyana and identified cutting issues that needed to be better addressed. “In that regard, it was recognised that during 2013, there were three major offshore 2D and 3D seismic acquisitions and these involved administration details with several agencies such as the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, Environ-mental Protection Agency and the Guyana Revenue Authority,” the statement said. “The volume of documents which had to be processed in an organised and timely manner was a challenge which was handled well under the circumstances by the involved agencies where full support was always evident. However, better systems are being examined to improve future operations.”
The statement said Esso, Repsol and Anadarko were companies operating offshore which concluded geophysical surveys in their respective prospecting areas. Meanwhile, Nabi Oil and Gas Inc concluded a small geochemistry survey over its coastal onshore block in the last quarter of this year and together such investments in exploration have been in the vicinity of US$50 million.
According to the statement, CGX said it was arranging significant funding for its exploration programme and will be soon advising on its plans.
“All the companies present committed to keep[ing] their time lines and especially with regard to processing and interpreting their new data which has to inform on an anticipated next campaign of drilling speculated for as early as 2015,” said the statement.
It said that the meeting concluded with an undertaking by all to work in a unified manner to overcome the issues common to all stakeholders for a more efficient outcome.
