‘Govt. must reveal all oil finds, big or small’ – WIN says

Nov 28, 2025 News

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(Kaieteur News) – Since Guyanese are footing the full cost of all exploration activity currently taking place in the Stabroek Block, it is incumbent on the government of Guyana (GoG) to publicly announce all oil discoveries made by ExxonMobil, whether commercial or not.

This is according to Leader of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) Party, Azruddin Mohamed. The Leader of the Opposition in waiting told this newspaper in an invited comment that Guyanese deserve to know what their resources are being used for.

He said, “There is no justifiable reason to keep it a secret (oil discoveries). Even if the amount of quality discovered is not commercially viable, the Guyanese public deserves full transparency since Guyana pays for the exploration.”

The 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with ExxonMobil and its partners allow for the full cost of exploration to be paid for by Guyana through its oil. In this manner, Exxon takes the oil produced each month to cover its exploration costs and other development related expenses. In fact, more than half of the oil produced each month is swallowed up by the company to cover its expenditure. In keeping with the terms of the PSA, 75% of oil monthly production is recovered, with the remaining 25% split evenly between the GoG and Exxon as profit.

Mohamed therefore pointed out, “Under our current petroleum agreement, exploration costs are recoverable. If the state pays, we deserve to know about all discoveries.” He was keen to note that the GoG already faces criticism over its management of the sector, with public trust continuously eroding.

To this end, the leader noted, “Transparency shouldn’t be a tussle at this point. We are calling for full disclosure of all oil discoveries made by Exxon.”

In addition to the discoveries, Mohamed cited the need for government to also release quarterly reports submitted by Exxon. He said, “The government must release the quarterly reports required by the contract that are submitted by Exxon that would contain these up-to-date information. Why is the Government hiding this information from its people that owns these resources? The resources and information therewith belongs to the people, not the PPP.”

Notably, oil-producing states around the world, including neighbouring Suriname have blocked oil companies from recovering costs spent to hunt for oil. Guyana on the other hand not only allows Exxon to recover costs for wells successfully drilled, but even dry holes encountered in the process. Before production activities commenced, Exxon claimed US$1.6B for exploration activity in the Stabroek Block during the period 1999 to 2017. Additionally, the company’s Annual Reports and financial statements for the period 2020 to 2024 show that another US$666.1M was racked up again for exploration activity.

This means Guyana has received a whopping US$2,266,100,000 for exploration works by the oil major. Despite the hefty bill being handed to Guyana by the contractor to explore the basin, the discoveries are not being announced and the country’s oil reserves have stagnated since 2022.

In April 2022, Exxon said the reserves in the Stabroek Block totaled 11 billion barrels. Two years and eight discoveries after the last resource update, government in 2024 said the reserves grew to 11.6B. Notably, although Exxon supplies government with data, the company said its estimate of the resources was lower than 11B barrels.

On Sunday, Kaieteur News reported that no new oil discoveries were announced by the government for the year or its energy partner. Be that as it may, the Mid-Year Report published by the Ministry of Finance made a bombshell disclosure, a whopping three oil discoveries reportedly made by the contractor for 2025. The Mid-Year Report states, “Moreover, three discoveries were made in the Stabroek Block in 2025, including two in the first half of the year.”

Exxon in a statement to the media on Sunday clarified that the discoveries did not meet the required threshold to be considered viable.  The company said, “We are legally obligated to file a Notice of Discovery with the Ministry of Natural Resources for every hydrocarbon find, regardless of size or commercial viability, and we have fully complied with this requirement.”

It continued, “The three wells referenced in the Ministry of Finance’s Mid-Year Report were disclosed to the government in accordance with these obligations. That is how they ended up in the Report. EMGL publicly announces all significant discoveries – those that materially impact resource estimates or development plans. The three wells mentioned in the report do not meet this threshold, which is why they were not included in our public announcements,” the statement read. The American oil giant pointed out that so far it has announced more than 30 significant discoveries in the Stabroek Block, while filing 51 Notices of Discovery with the Ministry.

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• Azruddin Mohamed, oil discoveries, oil finds, Transparency, Trust, win

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