Under growing criticism over a previously unannounced sale of Guyana’s first three cargoes of oil from ExxonMobil’s Liza-1 field, the Department of Energy (DoE) yesterday defended its plan, saying that the interim arrangement was approved as the full extent of the quality of the crude is still unknown and it wants to set a benchmark to guard against any possible down-pricing in future sales.
“This strategy was employed upon serious consideration of advice given by an international team external to the [DoE],” a statement from the department said yesterday.
“The logic is that given Guyana’s inexperience and the impending early date of the first lifts, an introduction phase of the grade was more advantageous to Guyana at this time,” it added, while explaining that its advisory team consisted of a Crude Marketing Specialist, a Commer-cial Specialist and an external Legal Adviser, among others.