Company that received Canje oil block free and sold it, now wants more oil blocks

Apr 30, 2023 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

Kaieteur News – Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas is interested in acquiring more acreage offshore Guyana, according to a report by OilNow. It said a Guyanese director, Edris Dookie, discussed the company taking time to evaluate the prospectivity of the three deepwater blocks.

Guyanese will remember Mid-Atlantic as the company the Canje block was signed away to in 2015 by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) government. The award, similar to that of the Kaieteur block, had raised major red flags about the potential presence of corruption.

There were questions about the experience and wherewithal of the company to manage a deepwater block like Canje. Such blocks require experienced, capable companies with deep pockets, like ExxonMobil and Shell.

Another concern was about the amount of work Mid-Atlantic did after receiving the block, and before selling shares. When companies obtain licences and quickly sell them to third parties without doing substantial work themselves, this is a red flag.

After Mid-Atlantic got Canje, JHI Associates had acquired a stake in the Canje Block. JHI’s website lists a Canadian, John Cullen, as the CEO and Director. Global Witness (GW) had said that Cullen founded the company. It also noted that public documents from JHI do not list its shareholders. However, GW did state in its now rescinded ‘Signed Away’ report that Dookie and Cullen “have a history together of holding Guyanese oil licences, but not a history of finding any oil in the country.”

Map showing the location of the Canje Block

JHI said that it purchased seismic data packages on the basin after it acquired its share of the Canje Block, though 35 percent of the licence was sold to Exxon less than a year after Canje was awarded, according to GW. The public never learned how much Exxon paid for the share. Exxon is now the operator. Total now also has a 35 percent stake in the block.

Former Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud (now Foreign Secretary) and former President Donald Ramotar were two former officials who took the spotlight when this issue emerged in 2019.

Persaud, as Minister, was legally responsible for the awards of Canje and Kaieteur. Though it was Ramotar who signed the deals, he insisted that he did so based on Persaud’s advice.

Persaud had told GW that the awards were made based on “briefing reports” prepared by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC)’s lawyers, but that he did not remember the lawyers’ names and could not provide the documents, since he was not in government at the time of the 2019 interview.

Notably, Persaud is quoted as saying that though he knew some of the persons who signed documents for the companies, such as Dookie, he did not know who the beneficial owners are, though it was necessary for him as a Minister to know. He is also reported as saying he cannot provide the reports which informed the decision.

Kaieteur News has strongly advocated for the beneficial owners of oil blocks to be 100% transparent for all Guyanese to see, after this scandal.

In a published letter following Kaieteur News’ expose on this matter in 2019, Ramotar insisted that the awards, which he said dated back to applications made for the Kaieteur and Canje blocks in 2012 and 2013 respectively, were transparent and above board. He said the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) processed and approved the applications in accordance with the law around late 2013, and that all fees were received by the regulator.

In May 2019, the now-defunct State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) had announced that it would investigate the awards, but nothing came of that.

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Canadian, Global Witness, John Cullen, Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud

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