Despite 8 new discoveries, Govt. claims Guyana’s oil reserves only grew by 600M 

Aug 15, 2024 News

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…but ExxonM’s partner CNOOC in 2023 reported 746M barrels in one discovery

Kaieteur News – In its 2023 annual report that was released this year, ExxonMobil’s partner, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) said that one of the eight new discoveries Lancetfish which was discovered in April 2023, averaged 100 million tons, translating to an estimated 746 million barrels of oil.

However, the Guyana Government on Wednesday claimed that since the last update in 2022, the reserves have only grown by 600M barrels.  This glaring contradiction, which was done at a televised news conference will further undermine government’s claim of being transparent in its dealing with citizens in the oil and gas sector.

During his press conference on Wednesday, the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat was addressing an estimation by S&P Global saying, “that is not true and speaking of resources, we have had a minimal increase in resources. I think we have moved to 11.6B now, 11.6B barrels equivalent offshore in the Stabroek Block now and that by itself is a significant find.”

His belief is that the analytics company has no data on which their analysis and calculations are based, since the government and Exxon are the ‘custodians’ of the data. Should Exxon exhibit or share any data, especially internationally at conferences, Bharrat is saying that approval has to be sought from the government. “So I am not sure where the analysts will get the data on Guyana from.” “Like one person said, we have 18B reserves, I don’t know where they get the data from honestly because Exxon and the Government of Guyana have that data, we have our consultant that is working with us but these people magically pull a figure our of the air,” he lamented.

The minister explained that if the country indeed has 18B barrels in its reserves, they would not be hiding it. “If we have 18B, we will say that because it means well for our country. There’s no reason to hide it as a matter of fact, hiding it will only stagnate our economy in this country.”

Bharrat cautioned the media that, “we gotta be factual, we gotta be truthful, we can’t lie to the people and say we have 18B whoever said that I don’t know where they got the information from but certainly not from Guyana. I can tell you that.” He is confident that the information the company used did not come, “from Exxon, not from the Ministry of Natural Resources, not from GGMC. I don’t know; maybe they have some magic wand that they can pull the data and they can determine how much resources we have.”

Government’s unchanging tune

Despite three different credible sources reporting on the significant increase in the country’s reserves, the government continues to sing its unchanging tune of “no significant increase.” 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.’ The country manager for Exxon Guyana Alistair Routledge has also maintained the same tune.

International experts from US analytics company S&P Global recently put the current Guyana basin recoverable resources at 18.7 billion barrels. However the Chairman of the Wales Development Agency Asgar Ali put the reserves to at least 15B barrels in May of this year.

Chairman of Wales Development Authority, Asgar Ally in January had 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.

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) every day they are finding more,” he added.

Meanwhile, in a May report, American analytics company S&P Global Inc. said that Guyana’s oil basin 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 that 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.”

Kaieteur News is correcting this story since there was a misunderstanding previously.

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