There will be no further extension to the September 12 auction as the entire regulatory framework which will facilitate the process has been completed, Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo declared on Friday.
“We’ve had to extend the deadline a few times because of our inability to complete these two most important documents, but now that they’ve been completed, I don’t anticipate the need to shift the deadline again,” Jagdeo said in response to a question about a further extension at the Ghana Chamber of Commerce Guyana conference on local content which was held at the Marriott Hotel.
The VP referred to the two documents that government had said would have to be in place before the auction could commence – a new Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), along with a new Petroleum Activities Bill 2023 – and disclosed that they were now completed.
“On the morning of the 10th… that Bill was passed. I expect the President to assent to it in a matter of days and then that will go to the bidders. So, the September deadline would be met,” Jagdeo, whose portfolio includes responsibility for policy oversight of the oil and gas sector, told attendees.
In August of last year, Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, told Stabroek News that government was still in the process of putting measures in place for the highly anticipated auctioning of available offshore blocks and consequently the auction would not be likely before the end of the third quarter of 2022.
He gave assurances that the planned auction will definitely happen before the end of the year.
The round was officially launched on December 9 of last year and an April 14 deadline had been given.
President Irfaan Ali back then had stressed the need to expeditiously move to develop the country’s oil and gas resources.
“We have a situation where there is a timeframe on oil and gas development. We understand the direction in which the world is going, so it is very important for us to have developers who are serious, who will expeditiously move towards developments of the oil and gas resources,” Ali was quoted as saying.
He added that April 14, 2023 had been set as the deadline for the close of submission for bids, and contracts were expected to be awarded by the end of May, 2023, following the evaluation of bids and negotiations.
On January 17 this year, President Ali disclosed that Guyana had sought to galvanise interest from the Indian private sector so that they could participate in the auction of offshore blocks and government had made it clear to the Indian government, as it has with other nations, that they too could bid.
And as he issued a public invitation for bidding at the auction, the President expressed the government’s hope for maximum participation. “We are encouraging every single company. Let me say this very clear – Guyanese company, any company. You want to be part of the auction? Please come up. Any government in any part of the world, any company in any part of the world, you are free to be a part of the auction,” he emphasised.
But on April 12, 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced that the extension of the Guyana 2022 Licensing Round’s bid submission deadline had been moved to July 15, 2023.
A statement from the ministry at the time, said that industry feedback and the advanced pace of modernising the oil and gas regulatory framework underscored the extended bidding period for the nation’s first competitive offshore oil and gas licensing round.
In June of this year, Reuters reported that it was told by Jagdeo that this country was again postponing, by about one month, the oil blocks auction, as the country finalises new terms of the country’s oil and gas regulatory framework. The report noted that Guyana had on three previous occasions, delayed the offer of 14 offshore blocks intended to recruit new explorers and reduce the hold over its oil output by a group led by ExxonMobil Corp.
The oil auction postponement was due to local elections being held during that week, Jagdeo had told Reuters. A new date for the auction had not been set, he added.
On the 22nd of June, he told a press conference that the auction will remain open until the completion of a new PSA and upgrade of its archaic petroleum laws to suit the current times and global standards.
He had said then that the bill was out for public consultation and anticipated increased feedback, as it was not complex or lengthy, since he “could read the bill overnight and have all his views there”.
Jagdeo had also informed that a global firm “with enormous experience in this sector had helped work on the bill. “We looked at similar framework legislation globally and a lot of the issues addressed, in those modern pieces of legislation where we were deficient in our laws, have been addressed and a lot of the issues would be dealt subsequently after the passage of the Bill through regulations”, he said.
