In a move which experts are dubbing a scheme to get out of decommissioning its wells, ExxonMobil and Shell recently agreed to sell more than 23,000 of their wells in California in the US.
ExxonMobil is currently Guyana’s only oil producer and basically controls the local industry. This move will now question the strength of the already weak legislation governing Guyana’s oil and gas industry.
ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power, recently reported that Aera Energy – a joint venture by Exxon and Shell – agreed to sell a chunk of their wells to a German asset management group IKAV for an estimated US$4 billion. Aera accounts for about a quarter of California’s oil and gas production, largely from pumping in Kern and Ventura counties, according to ProPublica’s report which was published in the Los Angeles Times.