News wire — Guyana’s closely watched auction of 14 offshore oil blocks faces a new delay with the South American country pushing back the deadline for oil explorers to submit bids to mid-July.
The delay is in response to industry reaction to draft terms released last year and to ongoing work on a regulatory framework that will guide development of the blocks, Guyana’s Ministry of Natural Resources said in a statement.
Guyana originally had hoped to award contracts under new financial terms by the end of next month for up to three deepwater and 11 shallow-water blocks.
The new financial terms are designed to significantly increase the government’s take from its booming oil output now controlled by one group.
The auction “continues to receive strong global interest and the government has benefited from insightful feedback” on the proposed production sharing agreement terms, it said. Officials have said they have received interest from international and national oil companies.
The competitive auction would be the first since a consortium of Exxon Mobil, Hess Corp and CNOOC Ltd discovered 11 billion barrels of oil.
This month, the group received in Guyana’s waters a third offshore production vessel that could begin pumping oil later this year. The group aims to increase its daily oil production to some 600,000 barrels in 2024.
Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Alexander Smith – Reuters
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