Oil companies bragging about Guyana’s reserves but country in the dark – AFC

Apr 14, 2024 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

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Kaieteur News – For two years now Guyana’s reserves have been kept in the dark, following eight new discoveries made by ExxonMobil in the Stabroek Block; however oil companies have been bragging about the country’s vast reserves at oil conferences and to its shareholders.

This was recently highlighted by former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Dr. Vincent Adams on Friday during an Alliance for Change (AFC) press conference.

He said, “It’s been two years now since we’ve gotten an update after that 11 billion (barrels), so this is nonsense. It wasn’t proprietary then and production rate is not proprietary.”

The former EPA Head was responding to a question from this newspaper on the comments made by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at his March 21, 2024 press conference. The VP was responding to a Kaieteur News article when he told reporters that knowing the country’s oil reserves was not important.

He said, “We know about all the reserves we have now but the only way this country can make money (from) is if we actually convert the resources into reserves and then into production. Knowing reserves without converting it into production is nonsense because we already know we have 11 billion barrels of reserves and it will keep growing but what’s the point about knowing, about reserves.”

The Vice President said that Exxon was providing monthly reports to the government that contains updates on the reserves but when he was asked to provide an estimate of the updated reserves, he said he would check to see whether the report submitted by ExxonMobil contains proprietary information.

Weighing in on the remarks made by Jagdeo, the former EPA Head argued that the oil companies are constantly bragging about the country’s reserves. “When you go to these oil conferences, matter of fact they will go out there and brag about every discovery that they make, they will be publishing at the oil conference,” he said.

Notably, proprietary information, is known as trade secrets or information owned by an institution or individual that is not intended for public disclosure.

Dr. Adams pointed out that Exxon previously disclosed the reserves but has developed a new protocol, concealing the estimated volumes of oil.

“When in the first, remember the first set of discoveries to get to the 11 billion…as soon as they drill the well, apparently the very next day, we had the information to say the reserve is up to this level,” he reasoned.

Dr. Adams therefore noted, “There is nothing proprietary about this. Even the technology is not proprietary, so it’s absolute nonsense about proprietary.”

He reasoned that the government is purposely withholding information from the public with regard to the oil and gas sector to avoid being scrutinized by citizens and international organizations. He said, “My reasoning is because of the questions and scrutiny that they are getting about all of this money that are coming in, what are they doing with the money.”

Additionally, Dr. Adams highlighted, “The international experts that are questioning it, and that is what they cannot stand and the newspaper such as Kaieteur News, they cannot stand that, so they are withholding information and they are doing everything in secret but its absolute nonsense.”

The Petroleum and Environmental Engineer was keen to note that while working on the drill rigs a preliminary assessment was conducted on the rigs to determine the estimated volume of crude oil, as such, he dismissed the excuse by the government.

Meanwhile, Former Minister of Public Infrastructure and Member of Parliament (MP), David Patterson, agreed that the GoG should provide an update of the country’s reserves.

Patterson said, “Dr. Adams is absolutely correct, there is no secrets whatsoever to reserves.”

The MP highlighted, “I do suspect obviously as I said before because of the scrutiny because of the misleading advertising, they are keeping this information private , the government is complicit as well, because if the government knows this information every quarter, there is no reason for it not to be made public.”

Notably, one of the eight discoveries made by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) in the Stabroek Block, since 2022, holds an estimated reserve of 746 million barrels of oil.

This was disclosed by Exxon’s partner, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Limited, in its 2023 Annual Results. ExxonMobil is the operator of the Stabroek with a 45% stake, with partners CNOOC Ltd and Hess holding interests of 25% and 30%, respectively.

CNOOC said in the report that the Lancetfish discovery, which was made in April 2023, averaged some 100 million tons, which is equivalent to 746 million barrels, according to the conversion formula of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Despite making eight new successful discoveries in the Stabroek Block since April 2022, Guyana has not received an update of the total estimated recoverable resources.

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• Dr. Vincent Adams, ExxonMobil, oil, oil reserves, Proprietary Information

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