Jagdeo claims: ‘No major shift in oil reserves’

Aug 10, 2024 News

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…but US firm says oil reservoir grew by 7.7 billion barrels since 2022  

Kaieteur News – There has been no significant change in the country’s oil reserve, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo disclosed on Thursday. The Vice President who is the chief policy maker in the oil and gas sector told reporters that based on ExxonMobil’s second quarter report no major change has been seen in the reserves.

Jagdeo’ s statement comes despite international experts from US analytics company S&P Global putting the current reserves at 18.7 billion barrels, an increase from a previous estimation by the Chairman of the Wales Development Agency Asgar Ali who put the reserves to at least 15B barrels in May of this year.

After each revelation, the Vice President was repeatedly asked about the status of the reserves to which his response has been ‘there has been no major change in the reserves.’

Two weeks ago, he promised to provide the number of barrels in the reserve when Exxon presents its quarterly report.

This week at his press conference this publication asked for the promised update and he said that, “You will get the exact figures next week from the minister, but, as I said before there has been no major change. You quoted some agency from abroad that has given a high figure, there has been no major change in the report that we receive, so the minister on Wednesday will let you know the exact of barrels of the reserve.”

In contradiction to the VP’s and Exxon’s country manager Alistair Routlegde’s maintained statements of no significant change, Chairman of Wales Development Authority, Asgar Ally in January said that some 15 billion barrels of oil have already been discovered to date in the Stabroek Block.

Ally, a former Finance Minister and former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, represented Guyana at the Jamaica Stock Exchange Conference held in January.

During an interview at the conference he made the disclosure of an additional 4 billion barrels of oil being discovered.

“As of this point in time we don’t know the full extent of the oil deposits but it’s huge and I could explain what that means. It’s about… I would say they have identified at least 15 billion barrels of oil in the (Stabroek) Block. So at this point in time, I would say Exxon has identified about 25 to 35% of that,” Ally who is an economist stated.

Although eight new discoveries were made since Guyana’s last resource update in April 2022, with one of those estimated to hold some 746 million barrels of oil, Exxon and Guyana’s Vice President have stated that the country’s estimated 11 billion barrels of recoverable resources remain with no significant improvement.

Notwithstanding, Ally said that over 4 billion barrels more have been discovered. Added to this, he explained, “If you have the time, I can explain to you what has happened. You see at one stage, Africa and Latin America were joined together. So West Africa is closer to the South American coast, of which Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, a part of and there is under that coast a basin of oil, huge basin of oil.”

“Every day we are finding new oil discoveries… Nobody knows the full extent (but) everyday they are finding more,” he added.

Meanwhile, in a May report American analytics company S&P Global Inc. said that Guyana’s  oil reserves has increased to approximately 18.7 billion barrels of recoverable resources since 2015.

The report was compiled by S&P Global Commodity Insights analysts Fernanda Machado, Mariana Anjos and Jerry Jarvis.

“In just nine years, it has established itself as the fifth largest [basin] in Latin America, while continuing to grow,” the analysts said.

Production is expected to peak in 2037 at 2.3 million boe/d, with oil accounting for 90%, they said.

“High-quality, low-emissions and cost-effective barrels have already reached European markets,” the analysts said. “Currently, all gas production is associated with oil and reinjected, but the marketed gas is expected to increase.”

Concerns have been raised about the lack of transparency about the country’s  oil reserves. The Government of Guyana has failed to regularly update the public on the status of the reserves and how they are being managed.

In April, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo explained that while the recent discoveries made by ExxonMobil are substantial, they do not represent a significant increase in the country’s overall oil reserves.

The Vice President told reporters, “Right now, there is an assumption that the information is being withheld, that’s false. I pointed out to you that we get these reports every three months and the reports that we have state what the reserves are and that has not changed materially over the past maybe year or so, so that’s not withholding information that we have.”

According to him, “Information about the reserves have been part of that report and it’s around the same 11 billion barrels. I’ve pointed out that…a discovery doesn’t mean that you know the size of the reserve. That to get to size of reserve, long after the discovery, you have to do appraisal, see the type of rock, a complex process before you get to the reserve.”

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• Guyana, Jagdeo, major change, oil reserves, S&P Global

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