While finally confirming approval for Qatar Petroleum taking a stake in Total’s holdings in the offshore Orinduik and Kanuku blocks, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat on Friday said that a total of 14 international companies now have working interests in this country’s eight offshore oil blocks.
“As we know it, we have eight blocks with 14 international oil companies operating in Guyana, the latest being Qatar Petroleum,” Bharrat told the National Assembly during his contribution to the 2021 budget debate.
In 2019, Qatar Petroleum had announced that it had signed an agreement with Total S.A. to obtain a share of exploration and production rights in two offshore blocks here. The company had said that it would mean that it would hold some 40% of Total’s 25% participating interest in the Orinduik Block, and 40% of Total’s 25% participating interest in the neighboring Kanuku Block.
As the deal was subject to regulatory approvals by the government, it had been put on hold because the then Department of Energy had said it was undertaking an assessment.
When government changed in August, Bharrat had said that the PPP/C would analyse the details and would announce its decision.
Outside of Qatar Petroleum, the companies that have interests in the blocks in the deep water area, offshore Guyana, are: Repsol, Tullow and Total (the Kanuku Block); Tullow, Total and Eco Atlantic (the Orinduik Block); Anadar-ko (the Roraima Block); Esso, Ratio, Cataleya and Hess (the Kaieteur Block); Esso, CNOOC Nexen and Hess (the Stabroek Block); Esso, Mid Atlantic and JHI (the Canje Block); CGX and Frontera (the Corentyne and Demerara blocks).
The Orinduik block is located 120 km offshore Guyana and has a total area of about 1,800 square kilometers, with water depths ranging from 70 to 1,400 meters, while the Kanuku block is located 100 km offshore with a total area of about 5,200 square kilometers with water depths ranging from 70 to 800 meters.
After saying in 2020 that it had no intentions of continuing to drill here after noncommercial heavy oil finds in the Orinduik Block, Tullow, the operator, recently announced that it would continue drilling activity here and in Suriname Basin. It said it would be focused “in an area where it has already recorded one discovery of ‘high-quality crude’ offshore Guyana” with imminent commencement of “drilling of Goliathberg-Voltzberg North (GVN-1) exploration well in Block 47 in Suriname.”
