Hess Corporation, one of the partners in Guyana’s lucrative offshore oil block, yesterday announced the purchase of US$750m of this country’s carbon credits over 10 years and 15% of the monies will go to Indigenous communities.
The Hess purchase followed an announcement on Thursday by the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) of the issuance of over 33 million carbon credits to this country. Hess will purchase the first 30 per cent of that amount for a minimum of US$750 million over a ten-year period.
However, while the agreement period between the two partners is from 2022 to 2032, government says that it was able to negotiate a ‘legacy credit’ amount of 12.5 million credits at US$15 per tonne, thus receiving a US$187 million sum for the period 2016 to 2020. In two weeks, US$75 million of that amount will be deposited into the account and the remainder paid within 18 months.