Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 26 2022

LatAmOil GUYANA LatAmOil

Guyanese President Irfaan Ali confirmed those was implemented efficiently and competently.
plans during an address at State House on June Additionally, he declared that the GTP pro-
30. He said his administration had already com- ject had garnered enough public approval to
piled a list of nine companies that were pre-qual- move forward. “As far as I’m aware, every sin-
ified to bid for the engineering, procurement gle question has been provided with an answer
and construction (EPC) contract for the gov- because there is absolutely nothing to hide in
ernment’s part of the project. These firms will this process or project,” he commented, accord-
have until September to submit their offers, he ing to a report from OilNOW.gy. “It is above
said, and Georgetown and ExxonMobil aim to board. It is transparent. It is open. It has under-
wrap up the procurement process in the fourth gone every single test of scrutiny.”
quarter of 2022. The project has the potential to transform
Ali also reiterated that the government Guyana’s economy by providing the country
intended to hire a top-notch project manage- with low-cost electricity and reducing the car-
ment company to ensure that the GTP scheme bon intensity of power generation, he added. ™

SURINAME
Staatsolie chief keen on Suriname’s

upcoming offshore bidding rounds

ANNAND Jagesar, the managing director been “interrogating the dataset very hard” with
of Suriname’s national oil company (NOC) the help of in-house, independent, local and
Staatsolie, has said that his company is looking foreign experts in order to carry out a “deep
forward to offering additional shallow- and analysis of the successes and failures” of explo-
deepwater blocks to foreign investors over the ration drilling in Suriname’s offshore zone. The
next year. NOC believes this analysis will help shed light
“We are very excited about the prospects of on the nature of the region and improve explor-
releasing further offshore acreage,” Jagesar told ers’ chances of success, he said, adding that more
OilNOW.gy ahead of the Suriname Energy, Oil information would be made available at the
and Gas Summit (SEOGS), which is taking place SEOGS conference.
on June 28-30. Suriname’s most recent bidding contest was
He said Staatsolie intended to go ahead with the Shallow Offshore (SHO) bidding round,
an earlier announced plan to stage two offshore which began in late 2020. Staatsolie signed a
licensing rounds by mid-2023 and would begin contract earlier this year with Chevron (US) for
accepting bids for a group of deepwater offshore Block 7, one of the eight licence areas included
fields later this year before launching a separate in SHO. The US major had already held a licence
round of auctions for shallow-water sites in the for Block 5, located immediately to the west of
first half of 2023. Block 7, in October 2021. ™
The managing director did not identify any
of the sites slated for inclusion in either bidding
round, though he had said earlier that the deep-
water auctions would cover a number of blocks
in the eastern end of Suriname’s exclusive eco-
nomic zone (EEZ).
He also noted that 60% of Suriname’s offshore
zone had not yet been assigned to any investors
and talked up the potential of these unlicensed
areas, referring to the deepwater finds made by
Petronas (Malaysia) and ExxonMobil (US) at
Block 52 and TotalEnergies (France) and APA
(US) at Block 58. “Building on the success of the
discoveries in Block 58 and 52, substantial work
has been undertaken on the entire offshore data-
set at a regional and block-specific level, which
is highlighting that all the elements of a working
petroleum system are present in the unlicensed
area,” he commented. The next deepwater bidding round is expected to cover the eastern end of the
Jagesar went on to say that Staatsolie had offshore zone, where most acreage remains unassigned (Image: Staatsolie)

Week 26 30•June•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9