Guyana saddled with $100M in pre-contract costs due to PSA Ramotar signed with Mid-Atlantic

Jun 04, 2019 News

By Kiana Wilburg

The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) former President, Donald Ramotar signed with Mid-Atlantic Oil and Gas during the 2015 election campaign period for the Canjie Block leaves Guyana saddled with US$500,000 ($100M) in pre-contract costs.
The PSA which was perused by this publication does not detail what these costs are for. It only states that the sum is in respect of all costs incurred by the contractor prior to the effective date.
Thirteen days before the 2015 General and Regional Elections were held, Ramotar also granted a Petroleum Licence to two inexperienced firms, Ratio Guyana and Ratio Energy Limited, to operate on the Kaieteur Block offshore Guyana.
That PSA has embedded in it, $31.4M in pre-contract costs which the contractors have the privilege of recovering. Unlike the PSA with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, EEPGL and others, there is no explanation on how the Ratio duo accumulated this cost.
In the meantime, the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) is pressing ahead with a probe of how the oil blocks were awarded to the firms in the first place when they have no wherewithal to independently engage in deep exploration and no track record in the sector.
The Canje block remains the only asset for Mid-Atlantic Oil and Gas and its partner JHI Associates Inc. Further information on Mid-Atlantic could not be found since its webpage is under construction.
Additionally, JHI and Mid-Atlantic, which participated in Guyana’s EITI reporting process, failed to submit their audited financial statements for review. JHI also failed to submit information on its beneficial owners. The EITI report lists Komal Dookie as the beneficial owner of Mid-Atlantic.
As for Ratio Guyana and Ratio Energy, both are registered at the same offices in Prashad Nagar and Gibraltar, Israel.
Ratio Guyana does not have a website but on the Kaieteur Block’s Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), a Ryan Pereira is signed on as the Company Secretary, Director and General Partner of the company. This company’s only asset remains the Kaieteur Block. Not a trace of evidence can be found to prove that it has years of experience in the exploration of oil and gas.
Ratio Energy, which also calls itself Ratio Petroleum, is chaired by Ligad Rotlevy. With the Kaieteur Block in hand in 2015, this Israeli company was able to capture three other blocks. In 2017, it was able to acquire rights in Suriname’s basin, specifically for Block 47.
In June 2016, Ratio Petroleum was granted a licence to operate in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Ireland.
In October 2018, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and Ratio entered into a Production Sharing Agreement, for oil exploration in an offshore section of Philippines continental shelf, known as SC 76.
Of its four assets, Guyana’s Kaieteur Block is its largest.
This newspaper understands that the Kaieteur Block operators did not submit their audited financial statements and documents regarding beneficial ownership for Guyana’s EITI report. The dates of incorporation for the two Kaieteur Block operators were also not provided to EITI.

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