Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 10 2022

LatAmOil GUYANA LatAmOil

The attorney general acknowledged the impor- representing? Who is funding them? I believe
tant role that civil society organisations play in that there is some organisation somewhere or
Guyana. However, he also called into question organisations somewhere that has an agenda
the motives of those groups that had signed the that is unknown to me, who are behind these
statement calling for the government to exercise different groupings of people,” he commented.
greater accountability in the extractive sector. Additionally, he pointed out that such organ-
“So I want to know, as a Guyanese – forget isations were expected to be critical of authority,
that I’m a minister or a government person – owing to the stances that they are expected to
who are these people? Whose interests are they take as part of their manifestos. ™

Guyana pushing CGX to drill at Demerara,

Berbice and not focus only on Corentyne

GUYANA’S government has urged Canada’s
CGX Energy and its parent company Fron-
tera Energy to move ahead with exploration
drilling at the Demerara and Berbice offshore
blocks rather than focus solely on Corentyne,
the licence area where it reported a discovery
earlier this year.
CGX and Frontera had said in a joint press
release dated February 14 that they had decided
against going ahead with the drilling of the
Makarapan-1 exploration well at Demerara this
year. They explained at the time that they were
revising their work plans in order to accelerate
exploration drilling in the northern section of
the Corentyne block, which is widely expected
to contain commercially viable reserves of crude
oil.
Last week, though, CGX revealed that Guy-
ana’s Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bhar-
rat had raised objections to the partners’ new
agenda. In an operational update, it said Bharrat
had reminded the two Canadian companies
that Georgetown still expected them to drill two
exploration wells within the next 11 months.
“On February 21, 2022, the minister of nat-
ural resources informed the joint venture that
the two commitment exploration wells must be
drilled on the Demerara block per the terms of
the Demerara petroleum prospecting licence
and associated petroleum agreement prior to
February 12, 2023,” the company said. Georgetown says the partners must drill at Demerare and Berbice (Image: Frontera)
CGX also said in the operational update that
its 62%-owned subsidiary ON Energy had noti- one exploration well on the Berbice block
fied the ministry on February 4 that it did not and acquire seismic on the block prior to the
intend to conduct any seismic data collection or expiry of the Berbice petroleum prospecting
exploration drilling at the Berbice block in 2022. licence and associated petroleum agreement,”
It asked the ministry for guidance on this front, it reported.
saying it would prefer to delay a planned seismic CGX will “seek further dialogue” with the
study until January 2023 so that it could focus on Natural Resources Ministry on both Demerara
Corentyne in 2022. and Berbice, it added.
Bharrat responded by pressing the CGX Equity in the Corentyne project is split
Energy subsidiary to move forward, despite 66.67% to CGX and 33.33% to Frontera, which
its desire to wait, the company said. “The min- is also the majority shareholder is the former
ister of natural resources has informed ON company. The partners have also split equity in
Energy that he expects the company to drill the Demerara block along the same lines. ™

Week 10 10•March•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9