Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 34 2022

LatAmOil GUYANA LatAmOil

Georgetown has said it will offer Block C to investors (Image: Guyana Geology and Mines Commission)

VP: Guyana still working to determine best

solution for unassigned offshore blocks

GUYANA’S Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told There may be some delays, since the gov-
reporters on August 19 that the government was ernment is still working to set terms for explo-
still trying to determine the best solution for ration licences that are transparent and also
disposing of unassigned blocks in the country’s perceived as fair to both the investor and to the
offshore zone. host country.
Officials in Georgetown have already decided “We have to also work swiftly – and this is
which licence areas should be offered to outside where we may have some delay, because we now
investors and have collected 2D and 3D seismic need to determine the fiscal terms for the new
data for these specific sections of the offshore prospecting licences. And this brings me to that
zone, Jagdeo said. But they have not yet deter- very contentious issue that we have had in the
mined whether these sites should be assigned public domain, which is the fairness of the con-
to a newly created national oil company (NOC) tract and what the future take for Guyana will
that can then work with a partner, auctioned off be,” he was quoted as saying by OilNOW.gy.
to international oil companies (IOCs) or made “[It] is trying to put all of this together in a
available through some combination of these framework that is fair to the investor, that they
two processes, he said. get a decent return on their capital, that would
The government does expect to make a deci- promote accelerated exploration and [that]
sion on this front by the end of August, he said. would allow the country to enjoy a greater share
He went on to say that if Georgetown chose of future benefits, should they proceed with pro-
to auction off its unassigned blocks, it might not duction agreements,” he continued.
be able to do so before the end of the third quar- Georgetown is also working to address
ter of 2022, as previously anticipated. other important questions such as whether

Week 34 24•August•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9