Guyana Oil and Gas News

The 14th national biennial science fair continued yesterday with judges examining entries from schools all across the country ranging from a recycling bin that distributes rewards to the multi-purpose use of the tangy gooseberry fruit.

With seven major discoveries since 2015 and boasting deep-water seismic technologies ahead of their competitors, ExxonMobil has announced that it has identified new oil leads here and will continue to pursue them throughout this year.

TOTALTEC Oilfield Services Limited (TOTALTEC) successfully completed its second equity finance raising from a large international investor, price undisclosed, on the 28th February.

SOL Guyana Inc on March 27th launched Shell’s new motor oil formulation – the fully synthetic Helix Ultra range of premium lubricants manufactured from natural gas with patented Shell PurePlus Technology.

HOUSTON,  (Reuters) – For decades, many Latin America’s oil-producing nations have often shunned investment from foreign firms, instead keeping their vast reserves under the tight control of governments and state-run oil companies.

If government believes or has evidence that there are illegalities in ExxonMobil’s and partners’ operations offshore, it will make an impromptu visit despite the contract saying that the minister must give seven days’ notice, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman says.

Although government favours the presence of oil majors here for strategic purposes, it is also welcoming the interest being shown by Guyanese companies in the country’s remaining oil blocks, according to Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman, who says it is also important that local firms have a stake in the developing oil and gas sector.

ExxonMobil has been accused by watchdog group, Global Witness of aggressively pursuing purchase of an offshore Liberian oil block in 2013 despite its awareness that it was tainted by corruption.

Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman says that by the time oil production starts in two years a National Oil Spill and Contingency Plan (NOSCP) should be established.

Italian oil and gas company, ENI is the latest petroleum giant to formally signal interest in drilling for oil here.

Introduction In this the 39th column I wrap up the comparison of the 1999 and 2016 contracts by looking at Annex D which is completely new in the 2016 Agreement.

A group of international researchers and petroleum policy advisors will today meet Cabinet ministers to discuss the emerging oil and gas sector and give insight into prudent preparations for the revenues that will be generated from the industry.

Introduction Column 37 which appeared last week dealt with the classification of costs and as indicated there, attention now turns to what Annex C describes as Pre-contract costs.

With the planned Department of Energy under the Ministry of the Presidency to assume responsibility for the oil and gas sector, Minister of State Joseph Harmon will become the person answerable to the legislature.

Strange numbers Size Column 36 published on Friday February 16, concluded the comparison of the 1999 and the 2016 Agreements proper.

Introduction Readers will recall that Article 27 – Applicable Law, was addressed in Column 29 which is available on the website of the Stabroek News as well as on chrisram.net.

Government inaction now constitutes force majeure! Today we take up from Article 24 which deals with force majeure, the definition of which is set out in paragraph 2.6.

Just a reminder that this series within a series seeks to compare the Janet Jagan administration’s 1999 Agreement with the Trotman 2016 Agreement and as we closed last week’s column we were on Article 20.

Part 33   Local Content Article 18 which deals with local content has been subject to a number of modifications, the first of which recognises that the activities will be carried out not by the Contractor but by an Operator appointed by the three companies making up the Contractor.

The March of Folly   The 2016 Agreement places greater emphasis on “gas”, or more correctly, “associated gas”, compared with the 1999 Agreement, including superficially minor, but no less significant, changes to Article 11 – Cost Recovery and Production Sharing and Article 12 – Associated and Non – Associated Gas.