Guyana Oil and Gas News

BATEMANS BAY/MELBOURNE,  (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of holiday makers fled seaside towns on Australia’s east coast today ahead of advancing bushfires, as military ships and helicopters began rescuing thousands more trapped by the blazes.

The UK‘s Tullow Oil plc today announced that the Carapa-1 exploration well, drilled on the Repsol-operated Kanuku licence offshore Guyana, has encountered approximately four metres of net oil pay based on preliminary interpretation but that this is below pre-drill estimates.

The Department of Energy (DE)  has  awarded a consultancy to Bayphase Ltd for the evaluation of plans for the development of ExxonMobil’s Payara oil field.

For a few days beginning on Friday December 20th when ExxonMobil announced its first ‘lift’ from its Liza 1 well in the Stabroek Oil Block to Monday December 23 when the news broke that a fifteenth oil discovery had been made at the Mako-1 Well southeast of the Liza field in the same Stabroek Block, Guyana grabbed the international headlines in a manner that it had never done previously.

Even as the global oil industry’s attention was fixed on developments like the continually unfolding reality of Guyana’s huge and potentially game-changing oil discoveries, the international community was considering the recent United Nations Climate Change engagements as significant disappointments if not failures in terms of delivery of any real progress in its climate change pursuits.   

In what is one of the earliest concrete recommendations from the manufacturing sector  regarding how the  Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) garnered from the country’s oil and gas earnings can be used to strengthen the other sectors of the country, the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) says that it would wish to see resources from the Fund target the aggressive pursuit of the establishment of a value-added manufacturing sector, underpinned by deployment of a “cluster approach” by local small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s).

The Department of Energy (DE) yesterday announced that subject to the completion of a contract, Shell Western Supply and Trading Limited has been selected to buy Guyana’s first three oil cargoes.

ExxonMobil today said it had made an oil discovery offshore Guyana at the Mako-1 well southeast of the Liza field, marking the 15th discovery on the Stabroek Block.

A day after the announcement of first oil and hailing what it said was visionary leadership by the late President Janet Jagan in engaging ExxonMobil, the opposition PPP yesterday flayed the government’s handling of the petroleum sector and pledged to have the necessary legislative framework installed in six months were it to win the March 2 general elections.

Over the last month UK explorer Tullow Oil has lost more than £1bn from its market value after announcing a decrease in its production capabilities over the next three years.

As the discussion of local content and Guyana’s preparation for the nascent oil and gas industry continues, a former Government Technical Institute student who now works with Saipem (an Italian oil and gas industry contractor) is saying to youths that it is not too late to get prepared and educated for the myriad job opportunities that come with the sector.

Guyana is now officially a producer of petroleum. The historic moment was announced last night by US oil major ExxonMobil and came less than five years after one of the company’s subsidiaries made a major oil find in the Liza-1 well offshore in the sprawling Stabroek Block.

A heliport being constructed at Lusignan on the East Coast of Demerara has raised questions about how approval for its construction was given and about air safety.

An official from the American Petroleum Institute (API) over the last few days spoke to around 200 business representatives on quality management systems.

ExxonMobil today announced that oil production has started from the Liza field offshore Guyana ahead of schedule and less than five years after the first find of hydrocarbons, which is well ahead of the industry average for deepwater developments.

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday warned that if his party returns to government it will exclude the company which concludes an agreement with the current administration to buy Guyana’s first oil from “any and all open tenders”.

President David Granger on Wednesday assured military veterans of his commitment to ensuring that they live comfortable lives and that their future generations will benefit from petroleum revenues which should not go to the pockets of the rich.

Strategic Recruitment Solutions Inc. (SRS), a local human resources and talent recruitment firm, is continuing to ensure that Guyanese find work in the burgeoning oil and gas and related sectors and it has trained and enabled 94 persons to find work in those fields to date.

The Audit Office of Guyana will be auditing the sale of the first three million barrels of Guyana’s oil to ensure that it is transparent as government’s explanation of the process does not make sense, Auditor General Deodat Sharma has said.

United Kingdom-headquartered Information Handling Services (IHS) Markit has been hired by government to undertake the auditing of ExxonMobil’s pre-contract charges and last week began working alongside the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).