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No drilling for oil expected before 2015
Guyana’s search for oil is not expected to see another round of exploratory drilling until 2015, Government has announced.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, this was one of the main outcomes from a critical meeting with exploration companies over the weekend in the US.
It is unlikely that there will be any exploratory drilling for oil before 2015, Government has announced.
Present at that meeting were Minister Robert Persaud and Deputy Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), Newell Dennison.
The meeting was held against the backdrop that Guyana has petroleum prospecting licences issued for exploration activities by petroleum companies in the offshore, coastal, near shore, deep water and ultra-deep waters of Guyana and within Guyana maritime areas.
Executives of CGX Resources Inc, ESSO Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd and Repsol Exploracion Guyana S.A. were in attendance along with new venture company, Ratio Petroleum.
The Ministry, reporting on the meeting, said the petroleum companies shared their operational experiences in Guyana and “cross-cutting” issues were identified which needed to be better addressed. “In that regard, it was recognized that during 2013, there were three major offshore 2D and 3D seismic acquisitions and these involved administration details with several agencies such as the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, Environmental Protection Agency and the Guyana Revenue Authority.”
The volume of documents which had to be processed in an organized and timely manner was a challenge which was handled “well under the circumstances” by the involved agencies where full support was always evident.
“However, better systems are being examined to improve future operations. The Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment was able to respond and give his assurances that he would engage his colleagues to tackle this matter.”
Meanwhile, the sore issue of a ship hired by Anadarko which was detained earlier this year by Venezuela in waters that Guyana says belongs to them, Minister Persaud was also able to respond to concerns over the situation. The incident had directly affected Anadarko’s survey in October 2013.
“He also intimated that Guyana was committed to a peaceful resolution but would preserve Guyana’s rights of sovereignty guaranteed under international laws and conventions.”
Esso, Repsol and Anadarko were companies operating offshore which concluded geophysical studies in their respective prospecting areas. Nabi Oil and Gas Inc. concluded a small geochemistry survey over their coastal onshore block in the last quarter of 2013 and together such investments in exploration have been in the vicinity of US$50M.
“CGX indicated that significant funding was being arranged for their own exploration programme over their prospecting areas and that they should in the near term be advising on their plans.”
The Ministry said that all the companies present committed to keep their time lines and especially with regard to processing and interpreting their new data which has to inform on an anticipated next campaign of drilling speculated for as early as 2015.
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