(Argus, 11.Mar.2021) — Guyana is preparing a revised tender to market its crude entitlement from the ExxonMobil-operated deepwater Stabroek block after cancelling an earlier request for proposals last month, natural resources minister Vickram Bharrat told Argus today.
This will be the third effort by the new oil producer to find a marketer for its share of 32.1°API Liza crude.
The South American country’s government immediately relaunched the tender after taking office in August 2020, saying the previous administration’s process was flawed.
Bharrat did not indicate when the revised tender would be launched.
US independent Hess was awarded the country’s fifth 1mn bl cargo of the country’s share of Liza crude, he said.
The country received $61.09mn for the cargo that was lifted on 5 February from the Liza Destiny floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit that is working the Liza-1 well on Stabroek, Bharrat said.
Hess also lifted the country’s fourth 1mn bl cargo in January. The first three 1mn bl cargoes in 2020 went to Shell in a restricted opening tender.
Guyana had scheduled five lifts of its entitlement in 2020 but did not achieve this because of lower-than-projected production from Stabroek caused by recurring problem with a gas compression unit. Output is currently running around 120,000 b/d, ExxonMobil says.
The government expects to market “five or six” 1mn bl Liza cargoes in 2021, Bharrat said.
ExxonMobil started production on Stabroek in December 2019 and forecasts output of 750,000 b/d by 2026. Its Stabroek partners are Hess and Chinese state-owned CNOOC unit Nexen.
Guyana’s income from oil royalties and sales has reached $267.66mn, Bharrat said.
The funds are being held in a new sovereign wealth fund at the Federal Reserve in New York.
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By Canute James
