Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 38 2021

LatAmOil GUYANA LatAmOil

Guyana’s government uses agents to market its then launch production at Payara in 2024 and at
share of output because the country does not Yellowtail in 2025.
have any refineries that might process it. The US super-major is working with the US
Liza-1, which lies approximately 193 km independent Hess Corp. and China National
from the coast, is the South American coun- Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) at Stabroek. The
try’s first commercial oilfield. ExxonMobil, the partners have made more than 20 discoveries at
leader of the consortium set up to explore and the block, which is believed to hold more than
develop the Stabroek block, is on track to bring 9bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in recoverable
a second field, Liza-2, on stream next year. It will reserves. ™

BRAZIL
JP Morgan under investigation

on charges of bribing Petrobras

JP Morgan Chase & Co., a US-based investment Rodrigo Berkowitz, a former Petrobras fuel
bank and financial services provider, is under trading desk employee who struck a plea deal
federal investigation in Brazil on charges of with Brazilian authorities in exchange for testi-
involvement in a bribery and money-laundering mony on JP Morgan’s purchases of fuel in 2011.
scheme that hinged on the purchase of petro- The fuel trader testified that a subsidiary of the
leum products from the national oil company bank had acquired these volumes in two ship-
(NOC) Petrobras. ments and used a network of intermediaries to
Brazilian authorities are conducting the direct illegal payments to Petrobras traders, the
probe in response to reports that JP Morgan news agency said.
paid bribes to Petrobras in order to secure Petrobras has denied the charges of bribery
300,000 barrels of fuel at below-market prices in and money laundering. In a statement emailed
2011, Reuters reported earlier this week. Citing to Reuters earlier this week, it proclaimed that
law enforcement sources and court documents, it had “zero tolerance in relation to fraud and
the news agency reported that the federal police corruption.”
were still working to determine whether this The news agency noted, though, that officials
was an isolated incident or part of an ongoing in both the US and Brazil have alleged that the
pattern. state-owned company’s trading desk employees
It also noted that the investigation was still accepted bribes over a period of about 10 years,
in the preliminary stages and had arisen from up until 2018.
a wider effort to examine irregularities in com- JP Morgan has also come under fire from
modities trading. US regulatory authorities. In 2020, it agreed to
According to one of the court documents admit fault and pay a $920mn fine after being
viewed by Reuters, some of the information charged with manipulating the markets for US
that is driving the Brazilian probe came from Treasury bonds and metals futures. ™

Petrobras traders have come under suspicion of accepting bribes (File Photo)

Week 38 23•September•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11