Georgetown — Guyana has received offers for eight of 14 offshore oil and gas exploration blocks in a bidding round, including from groups formed by Exxon Mobil and TotalEnergies, the government and documents seen by Reuters showed on Wednesday.
The South American country wants to quickly expand its energy industry and recruit a wider range of developers to counterbalance a consortium led by Exxon that controls all oil production.
The Ministry of Natural Resources confirmed that Exxon, Hess Corp and China’s CNOOC had bid as a consortium, while a government document also listed a consortium of TotalEnergies, Qatar Energy and Malaysia’s Petronas as a bidder.
A consortium formed by Delcorp, Watad Energy and Arabian Drillers, and another by Liberty Petroleum Corp and Cybele Energy, also bid, as did a consortium of International Group Investment and Montego Energy, the document showed. Sispro submitted an offer by itself.
“We went to this market with 14 blocks and we got response for eight blocks. We are very happy,” said President Irfaan Ali during an event in Washington organized by the Inter-American Dialogue on Wednesday, adding many countries were not getting responses to oil auctions in current market conditions.
Exxon spokesperson Meghan Macdonald confirmed the company had submitted a bid with CNOOC and Hess, saying: “We seek opportunities to continue progressing our commitment to meeting the world’s energy needs.”
The auction, which garnered attention amid the discovery of more than 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas resources by the Exxon group in recent years, had been delayed several times since 2022.
Guyana is currently producing and exporting about 380,000 barrels per day (bpd) or equivalent of crude and gas, making it Latin America’s seventh-largest producer. The Exxon consortium aims at reaching 1.2 million bpd of output by 2027.
Hess and TotalEnergies did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
“Not only are we going to be a major oil producer. Very soon we’ll have a national gas strategy and that itself will bring tremendous benefit to the country,” Ali said in Washington.
TotalEnergies said on Wednesday it will begin studies for developing a large oil project in neighboring Suriname’s most promising offshore area, adjacent to Exxon’s Guyanese Stabroek block, amid a visit by its CEO Patrick Pouyanne to the country.
Reporting by Kiana Wilburg in Georgetown and Marianna Parraga in Houston; Additional reporting by Sabrina Valle and Gary McWilliams in Houston, and Forrest Crellin in Paris; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by David Holmes – Reuters
