A PANOPLY OF PETROLEUM PRODUCERS

STABROEK
In its third-quarter earnings release. Hess announced that the first phase of oil production from the Stabroek Block offshore is now expected to begin before year end, months earlier than expected, ahead of the previously scheduled first-quarter 2020 date.  

First oil from the 120,000-B/D Liza Destiny floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO), which arrived on the block on 29 August 2019 after a 42-day trip from Singapore, is targeted for December.

It is expected to take 3 months before the FPSO ramps up to full capacity. The Liza-1 development consists of four subsea drill centers and 17 wells, of which eight are production wells, six water injection wells, and three gas injection wells.

The FPSO was converted from a VLCC by Keppel. It will be able to store 1.6 million barrels of crude oil.

The Liza field sits in the giant Stabroek block, which covers almost 27,000 square kilometers, circa 200 kilometers offshore Guyana. of 14 discoveries on the Stabroek Block since the first in 2015 yet to be developed will require at least five FPSOs producing over 750,000 B/D by 2025. The 26,8000-sq-km block has an estimated recoverable resource of over 6 billion BOE.

Operator ExxonMobil and its partners sanctioned Liza Phase 2 in May and are moving FULL STEAM AHEAD to use the 220,000-B/D Liza Unity FPSO, with first oil expected by mid-2022. Pending government approvals, a third development, Payara, is expected to produce up to 220,000 B/D with startup in 2023.

ExxonMobil holds a 45% interest in the block. Hess and CNOOC own 30% and 25%, respectively.

Exploration and development drilling activities continue on the Stabroek Block.

After completion of operations at Tripletail, the Noble Tom Madden drillship will next drill the Uaru-1 exploration well, located approximately 10 miles east of the Liza-1 well.

The Stena Carron drillship is continuing drilling and evaluation activity at Ranger-2. The drillship will next conduct a production test at Yellowtail-1.

The Noble Bob Douglas drillship is currently conducting development drilling operations for the Liza Phase 1 project.

A fourth drillship, the Noble Don Taylor, is expected to arrive in Guyana in November 2019 and will drill the Mako-1 exploration well located approximately 6 miles south of the Liza-1 well.

Orinduik Opens New Play

Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas provided an operational update following its two recent oil discoveries on the Orinduik Block, offshore Guyana.

• Multiple prospects currently being reviewed with further high graded candidates under consideration for a 2020 drilling programme.
• Operator is preparing a budget for long lead items including wellheads and casing.
• Jethro and Joe wells drilled on budget. Joe delivered for under $21m gross, less than half of the cost of the Jethro well.
• Interpretation of data from Jethro and Joe discoveries is ongoing with an updated Competent Persons Report to be commissioned once analysis completed.
• Eco will provide a further update upon JV Partner’s budget approval and agreed drilling locations for the 2020 campaign.

Eco Atlantic, together with its JV Partners on the Orinduik Block, Tullow Guyana (Operator, 60% Working Interest (‘WI’)) and Total E&P Guyana (25% WI) are currently reviewing a post- discovery drilling strategy and supplemental budget, for which Eco will pay its net 15% working interest funded from its existing cash resources. This includes post-discovery activities on the two recent oil discoveries, additional exploration research in relation to future well target selection and costs associated with activities for the further wells being considered for drilling in 2020.

Evaluation of the well data to date on the Jethro-1 discovery confirmed that the sands intersected were as had been anticipated in our CPR. Interpretation of the data from the Joe-1 discovery is ongoing. There is the potential for more resource than previously anticipated, and the reservoir and proven oil charge in the Upper Tertiary sands on Joe-1 provides encouragement in relation to many other Late Tertiary locations throughout the Orinduik Block.

Evaluating requirements for appraisal well
Colin Kinley, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer commented:

‘Our Jethro-Lobe discovery, announced in August 2019, is in a clean Lower Tertiary amalgamated sandstone. Tullow described the Jethro-1 well, upon discovery, as having the potential to be a standalone commercial discovery, having a clear seismic definition and excellent reservoir. The JV Partners are currently evaluating the requirements for an appraisal well.

‘The Joe-1 discovery on the Orinduik Block, announced in September 2019, is in a shallow, clean, Upper Tertiary age channel sandstone. Not only have we opened a new shallow play, furthering and de-risking other opportunities on the Block, we have also done this cost effectively. Joe-1, the second well on the Orinduik Block, was drilled at less than half of Jethro-1’s cost, on budget – under $21 million gross. We believe that these lower drilling costs positively affect development economics in this play.

As was the case with the Jethro-Lobe well, we were able to clearly define the target on the 3D seismic section of Joe-1, and the well results were in line with our pre-drill expectations The reservoir and the proven oil charge in the Upper Tertiary sands in Joe-1 also provide encouragement in relation to many other Upper Tertiary locations throughout the Orinduik Block, for example the nearby off-setting Jimmy prospect where Eco believes we now have a significant increase in the Chance of Success as it appears to be in the same charged sands.

‘With further processing and interpretation of 3D seismic data, now correlated with our two well discoveries, the location of further wells to be drilled in 2020 will be defined within the next few months.

‘In addition to geological and geophysical interpretation work, Eco and its JV Partners have now begun operational budget planning to secure commercially attractive proposals for the timely provision of materials and services required to allow for our drilling program in 2020.’

Multiple targets
Gil Holzman, Co-Founder and CEO, commented:

‘After great success in our 2019 drilling campaign, with two significant oil discoveries, the JV Partners on the Orinduik Block have many additional targets to consider in the near term. The newly learned results on Orinduik and the results from the Carapa well currently being drilled in shallow water on Repsol’s adjacent Kanuku Block, just south of the Orinduik, will greatly assist in our interpretation and selection of future drilling targets. We are pleased to support the further work in 2019 and look forward to approving the 2020 drilling program and budget once finalized. We are sufficiently capitalized for drilling further wells in the 2020 program.

‘With ample de-risked prospects and targets on the highly prospective Orinduik Block, Eco is well positioned to continue to generate material shareholder value.‘

Source: Eco (Atlantic)

Orinduik and Kanuku

Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) announced that the Joe-1 exploration well has successfully opened a new Upper Tertiary oil play in the Guyana basin.

The Joe-1 exploration well was drilled by the Stena Forth drillship to a Total Depth of 2,175 metres in water depth of 780 metres. Evaluation of logging and sampling data confirmed that Joe-1 has encountered 14 metres of net oil pay in high-quality Upper Tertiary petroliferous sandstone reservoirs.     Joe is the first oil discovery in the Upper Tertiary and de-risks the petroleum system in the west of the Orinduik block, where a significant number of Tertiary and Cretaceous age prospects have been identified.

Tullow and its Partners will now evaluate data from the Joe-1 discovery alongside data from the Jethro-1 discovery announced in August 2019 and await the outcome of the Carapa well to determine the optimal follow-on exploration and appraisal programme.

The non-operated Carapa-1 well on the Kanuku licence (Tullow 37.5%) is scheduled to commence drilling in late September with the Rowan EXL II jack-up rig and will test the Cretaceous oil play with a result due in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Joe-1 was drilled on the Orinduik licence by Tullow’s wholly owned subsidiary Tullow Guyana B.V.

Tullow Guyana B.V. is the operator of the Orinduik block with a 60% stake. Total E&P Guyana B.V. holds 25% with the remaining 15% being held by Eco (Atlantic) Guyana Inc. On completion of operations, the Stena Forth drill ship will depart Guyana and return to Ghana.

ANGUS MCCOSS, EXPLORATION DIRECTOR, COMMENTED

“I am very pleased that we have made back-to-back discoveries in Guyana and successfully opened a new, shallower play in the Upper Tertiary age of the Guyana basin with our second well. The Joe-1 discovery and its surrounding prospects represent another area of significant potential in the Orinduik Block and we are greatly looking forward to the next phase of the programme as we continue to unlock the multi-billion barrel potential of this acreage.”

Tullow in December highlighted four prospects on the block that were potential drilling targets for this year — Kumaka, Amaila and Aurituk, as well as the initial target, Jethro-Lobe. The partners also looked beyond the other three for their second well  Joe, with Holzman saying four to five potential targets were reviewed.

Other prospects at Orinduik are Amatuk, Rappu, Tuktuk, Drios, Blacktip, Mako and Iatuk. The partners are budgeting an average of 40 days for each well, with an average well cost of $25 million.

Eco has given Jethro-Lobe a pre-drill resource estimate of up 250 million barrels of oil gross, with operator Tullow more conservative at 100 million barrels. One of the potential follow ups, Aurituk, is assessed as an extension of ExxonMobil’s Hammerhead discovery on the adjacent prolific Stabroek block.

PSA and Profits

If Orinduik Block continues to yield commercial discoveries. GUYANA stands to benefit from as much as 60 per cent in oil profits. Tullow Oil’s bullish spokesman, George Cazenove dismissed claims that the country will only benefit from a meagre one per cent in royalty.

Less than six weeks apart, UK-based Tullow Oil discovered oil twice in the Orinduik Block at the Jethro-One well and the Joe-One well. While the industry rejoices at its success in de-risking the offshore, critics claim that the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) is worse than the PSA signed with IOC  ExxonMobil.

The cheerful Cazenove said the PSA must be analysed as a whole. “There is no point talking about the royalty in isolation.” According to the PSA with Tullow Guyana B.V and Eco (Atlantic) Guyana Inc., the country could benefit from as much as 60 per cent in oil profit, including a one per cent royalty once the companies commence production for oil in the Orinduik Block.

“So we have Petroleum Sharing Agreement, in terms of the sharing which range from 50 per cent to 60 per cent. So if we produce over 80,000 barrels per day, then the government gets 60 per cent share of production and that is absolutely aligned with contracts all around the world, and that is a key part of the contract in terms of where the Guyanese economy and its people will benefit.”

According to the PSA, for the first 25,000 barrels of oil, Guyana will receive a profit of 50 per cent. For the next 25,000 barrels, the country’s profit would increase to 52.5 per cent and 55 per cent for the next 15,000 barrels. For the subsequent batch of 15,000 barrels of oil, Guyana would benefit from a 57.5 per cent profit and 60 per cent profit for more than 80, 000 barrels of oil. The profit will be shared between the government and contractor on a monthly basis.

In cases where the royalty is higher, the profit with the PSA is lower. “So you may have a contract where the royalty might be 15 per cent but the production sharing would be that much less, because the royalty is that much higher. So it just depends on where the weight is within the contract.”

Iterating the need to analyse the PSA in its entirety, he said Guyana is fortunate that at the beginning of its oil and gas life cycle it has transparency due to the fact that the government has made the contracts public.

“In many oil and gas economies, the contracts are not public, so you wouldn’t know what the state’s take is and what the company’s take is.”

Turning his attention to the company’s successes thus far, Cazenove said though Tullow has made two successful finds to date at the Jethro-One and Joe-One wells in the Orinduik Block, it remains cognisant that it is still in its early stage of exploration. “So when we say 100M barrels of oil resources that’s great, it’s a good result but it’s the start to what we are trying to achieve, and it would require further work, and further interpretation of the data that we received from the well.”

Jethro-One was drilled by the Stena Forth drillship to a total depth of 4,400 metres in approximately 1,350 metres of water. Jethro-One was the first discovery on the Orinduik licence and comprises high quality oil bearing sandstone reservoirs of lower tertiary age. The well encountered 55m of net oil pay which supports a recoverable oil resource estimate which exceeds Tullow’s pre-drill forecast of 100M barrels of recoverable resources. Joe-One exploration well was also drilled by the Stena Forth drillship to a total depth of 2,175 metres in water depth of 780 metres. The evaluation of logging and sampling data confirms that Joe-One has encountered 14 metres of net oil pay in high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs of upper tertiary age.

Cazenove noted that though the Joe-One well may not have exceeded Tullow’s pre-drill forecast of 100M barrels of recoverable resources, it is a strong indication of what exist within that section of the block. “The Joe Well opens up a lot of the western side of the licence. The licence has a western side and an eastern side. The Joe Well opens up whole of the western side, and if that had been dry, if we had found nothing there, it would have been difficult to carry and explore on that side of the license. But now that we have found oil, we can use the data from there and map it unto other prospects within the licence. So it is a great start of the campaign; we are so happy and excited to drill two successes but it is still the start.”

The Repsol-operated Carapa-One well on the Kanuku licence, of which Tullow owns 37.5 per cent, is expected to have commenced drilling with the Rowan EXL II jack-up rig and will test the Cretaceous oil play with a result due in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Cazenove advised that the successes of those three wells will determine how Tullow moves forward in 2020. “So what we will do in 2020 would be a mixture of further exploration, so again, we will be looking for new accumulations of oil, but we will also be deciding what to do with both the Jethro accumulation and the Joe one as well.”

Overall, Tullow Oil has invested US$80M into the drilling of the three wells offshore Guyana. ExxonMobil, lifting its gross recoverable resource estimate to over six billion barrels of oil equivalent in the Stabroek Block is cognisant of the country’s potential.

SBM Offshore

SBM Offshore completes US$1.14 billion financing of Liza Unity FPSO

AMSTERDAM – SBM Offshore has completed the project financing of FPSO Liza Unity for a total of US$1.14 billion.

The project financing was secured by a consortium of nine international banks. The company expects to draw the loan in full, phased over the construction period of the FPSO. The financing will become non-recourse once the FPSO is completed and the pre-completion guarantees have been released. The project loan has a tenor of two years post completion, in line with the duration of the charter, and carries a variable interest cost of LIBOR plus 1.50%.

The Liza Unity FPSO design is based on SBM Offshore’s Fast4Ward program as it incorporates the company’s new build, multi-purpose hull combined with several standardized topsides modules. The FPSO will be designed to produce 220,000 boepd, will have associated gas treatment capacity of 400 MMcfd and water injection capacity of 250,000 bpd. The FPSO will be spread moored in water depth of about 1,600 meters and will be able to store around 2 MMbbl of crude oil.

The Liza field is located circa 200 kilometers offshore Guyana in the Stabroek block. ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is operator and holds 45% interest in the Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30% interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds 25% interest.

Veolia wins FPSO seawater treatment project
LONDON – Veolia Water Technologies, through its subsidiary VWS Westgarth Ltd, has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract by SBM Offshore for the supply of a seawater treatment package for the Liza Unity FPSO, located in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana.

The award is for the design and procurement of equipment with construction technical assistance for a seawater treatment plant sized for 263,244 bpd of low sulphate water and 31,700 bpd of reverse osmosis process water for the Liza Unity FPSO unit, which will operate in the Liza Field, offshore Guyana.

The seawater system, provided as two fully-integrated process modules, incorporates the sulphate reduction (SR) nano-filtration membrane process to selectively remove barium and strontium from the injected seawater, preventing the formation of barium or strontium scale in the reservoir or production pipe internals. The SR process leaves the other salts (sodium chloride, etc.) substantially unaffected, maintaining the stability and permeability of the oil reservoir formation clays.

This is the twelfth contract awarded from SBM Offshore to Veolia and can be attributed to the successes of previous projects executed for the company. Liza Unity FPSO will be the largest capacity FPSO that SBM Offshore has designed. The FPSO will be spread moored in a water depth of 1,633 meters and will be able to store around 2 MMbbl of crude oil.

Luis Ferreira, package manager, SBM Offshore said “Liza Unity is a strategic project for SBM Offshore and VWS Westgarth’s knowledge and experience on water treatment systems will be of key importance for the success of the development. The exceptional collaboration and teamwork already put in place by both companies have formed a solid base for a safe and quality-driven delivery of the project scope.”

Oil metering

The Energy Department is exploring the possibility of hiring a third party for technical assistance  with oil metering.. This option is being considered to assist key agencies such as the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) in the early stages of the process.

Because of the narrow window for start of first oil the Department may use a limited tender to select the third party with some of the funds for training on oil metering. from the GNBS programme under the Ministry of Business, which precluded oil discovery. Government is being approached for advancement for GNBS. The World Bank is funding Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), another crucial agency to build its capacity in monitoring the oil metering process.

The Department has aligned with the world-renowned American Petroleum Institute (API).  in Washington D.C, the largest trade association for the oil and gas industry in the USA. It represents around 400 corporations engaged in oil production, extraction (including hydro-fracking), distribution, and other aspects of the industry.
Guyana National Bureau of Standards has a critical role in the metering process, specifically for calibration and instrumentation. The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, would be responsible for what is coming from the well heads to the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels.

It is in that context the training from the API has been provided. Officers visiting the FPSO will undertake the HUET training, designed to provide personnel who travel by helicopter with an understanding of helicopter escape procedures, in particular, action to be taken to evacuate or escape from a ditched/ capsized helicopter.     GGMC officers completed this but the GNBS officers will soon begin their training.

Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL)

ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) has committed to taking steps to safeguard neighbouring states from oil spills. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its third Stabroek Block project Payara states that EEPGL will work closely with representatives of countries that could be potentially impacted by a large oil spill.

It intends to coordinate operations and communications between different command posts; creating a transboundary workgroup to manage waste from a product release, including identifying waste-handling locations in the impacted regions and managing commercial and legal issues; and identifying places of refuge in the impacted region where response vessels could access repairs and assistance.

EEPGL will also take steps to determine how impacted regional stakeholders can cooperate to allow equipment and personnel to assist in a spill response outside the region while l retaining a core level of response readiness within the jurisdictions.
It will determine financial liability and establish claims and/or livelihood remediation processes during a response to a transboundary event. It will work with communities within impacted areas to raise awareness of oil spill planning and preparations.

PAYARA PROJECT OVERVIEW
Documents in the Environmental Protection Agency state that EEPGL’s Payara development will be located in the eastern area of the Stabroek Block which is approximately 190 km (118 miles) from Georgetown.

Oil production from Payara is expected to last at least 20 years with startup of the facilities expected to occur approximately in mid-2023.

EEPGL will drill approximately 35 to 45 wells offshore to support extraction of the oil from below the seabed. Each well will be drilled using a floating drill ship.

Each well will be directionally drilled to specific reservoir targets generally 4,000 to 5,500 meters (m) below the sea level. EEPGL will install some oil production facilities on the sea floor at approximately 1,500-1,980 m (4,900-6,500 ft) water depth. These subsea facilities include pipes and hardware.

Subsea facilities allow oil from wells to be gathered and moved to the surface of the ocean for further processing. EEPGL will then install other oil production facilities on a vessel which floats on the surface of the ocean. 1,800-1,980 m (5,900-6,500 ft) of water depth and will remain on location throughout the life of the facility.

Oil production facilities on the FPSO will further process the oil extracted from below the sea floor.

The FPSO will have the capacity to produce up to approximately 180,000 to 220,000 barrels of oil per day. During the early stage of production operations, the FPSO is anticipated to produce up to an average of approximately 5,700,000 to 6,600,000 barrels of crude oil per month. These estimates are preliminary and are subject to change.

The Project is expected to employ up to 600 persons during development well drilling, approximately 600 persons at the peak of the installation stage, and up to about 140 persons during production operations.The vessel is a Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) facility and will be moored on location.

World Bank

Guyana is ranked 134 among 190 economies in the ease of doing business, according to the latest World Bank annual ratings. The rank of Guyana deteriorated to 134 in 2018 from 126 in 2017. Ease of Doing Business in Guyana averaged 119.09 from 2008 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 140 in 2015 and a record low of 98 in 2008.

Doing Business 2020–Sustaining the pace of reforms
The top 10 best places in the world to do business, according to the study, are New Zealand (with a score of 86.8 out of 100), Singapore (86.2), Hong Kong SAR, China (85.3), Denmark (85.3), the Republic of Korea (84), the United States (84), Georgia (83.7), the United Kingdom (83.5), Norway (82.6), and Sweden (82).

Most improved places to do business

Doing Business also looks at which economies improved the most. Doing Business 2020 found that the 10 economies that improved the most in their ease of doing business score were Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India, and Nigeria.

Latin America and Caribbean

Economies of the Caribbean carried out a record 19 reforms and 11 of 16 economies implemented business-facilitating reforms primarily focused on starting a business, getting electricity, paying taxes, and enforcing contracts.

Latin America lagged other regions of the world in smoothing the path for domestic small and medium-size enterprises to do business. No economy in the region has appeared in the 10 top improvers list over the past two years and no Latin American economy ranks among the top 50 best places globally to do business. However, there are some bright spots. Colombia implemented 37 reforms since 2005 and continues to lead reform efforts in the region. The country, ranked 67th globally, initiated three major reforms over the 12-month period to May 2019.

OECD convention
Chartered Professional Accountant Tameshwar Lilmohan recommended that tax relations with multinational oil companies will work out in the favour of Guyana if it becomes a party to an international convention that will equip it to more comprehensively tackle tax evasion and tax avoidance.

 The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in conjunction with the Council of Europe, had jointly developed the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

The Convention is a multilateral instrument that facilitates better operations of national tax laws, with methods ranging from the exchange of information, including automatic exchanges, to the recovery of foreign tax claims.

Lilmohan presented the paper titled ‘Costs and Benefits of Tax Incentives by Developing Countries to Multi-national Enterprises’ at Osgoode Hall Law School this year, for the double Masters degree in Law. The paper’s case study is the Petroleum Agreement between Guyana and ExxonMobil.

Contractual bargains between Governments and multinationals like ExxonMobil result in rates and preferences that are arrived at in situations where the imbalance of information and experience the country has, sways the bargaining power in favour of the multinational enterprise.

Companies are skilled at structuring their legal framework so that the low tax or tax-free income from these countries are channeled to their resident country that charge no or low corporate income tax.

In Guyana the Government, in addition to waiving a series of taxes for oil companies, intends to give the companies tax certifications which will grant them reductions in taxes in their home country.  Guyana has very limited tax treaty agreements and this one would be extremely useful.

The OECD Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action 13 Framework, under the convention, is the centre of Lilmohan’s recommendation. It was facilitated because the lack of quality data on corporate taxation has been a major limitation to measuring the fiscal and economic effects of tax avoidance, making it difficult for authorities to carry out transfer pricing assessments on transactions between linked companies and even more difficult to carry out audits.

The Convention currently has 128 participating jurisdictions.  “Had Guyana been a member it could have benefitted from the Convention’s peer review arrangement,” Lilmohan wrote.

“The peer review would have ensured that the Petroleum Agreement was evaluated and implemented to a standard consistent with an agreed set of criteria and methodology. The terms of reference of the Convention requires participating jurisdictions to be transparent with the information and frowns upon secret tax rulings.”

The waivers granted under the Stabroek Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) to Exxon and its partners has been criticised.

Engineer Darshanand Khusial, indicated, that Guyana could have easily secured US$35B in taxes from the operators of the Stabroek Block, from their profits on the current discovered reserves in the Block.  “That is more than enough to provide world class services to our… citizens”

Lilmohan’s paper can be accessed using this link: https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://www.oggn.website/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/exxon_guyana_case_study.pdf&hl=en_

Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme

Government continues to engage with its diplomatic partners and to secure training opportunities to enable Guyanese to acquire skills t to remain relevant and compete in this fast-paced developing world.

Ministers attended a simple ceremony to mark the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme Day, at the residence of the High Commissioner of India to Guyana, Dr. K. J. Srinivasa.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Guyana and India in 1966, Guyanese have benefited from many cultural, economic and training opportunities including those under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme.

The level of engagement by India is highly appreciated by the Government of Guyana and its people. To date Guyanese from both the public and private sector have been beneficiaries of scholarships and contribute meaningfully to the development of Guyana utilising the skills and training that they have received.

The Government aims to prepare young people for jobs in the future to enjoy the ‘good life’ and pursued a policy of unity and social cohesion to ensure that Government works for all ..Our international partners are very important in this process and to developmental goals… Government of Guyana and its people are happy to have India as an ally to achieving this goal though the ITEC Programme and wish to build strong relations in the future.

With restitution of the 50 ITEC scholarship slots offered to Guyana Government will ensure that all 50 scholarships are awarded after only 17 were utilised for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Steps are being taken to revamp the Public sector and the evolution of the Public Service is made possible partly through initiatives such as the ITEC Programme offered by the Government of India.

The ITEC programme as well as the numerous other programmes offered by the Government of India to Guyana, helps in this process of education of Guyana These scholarships by India will empower public servants with professional skills, preparing them for an increasingly globalized world.

The High Commissioner of India to Guyana said the Programme allows India to share a vast wealth of knowledge and experience with the wider world particularly, the 160 ITEC partner countries. To date, Dr. Srinivasa said, “.….over 2000 persons have received training, which places special emphasis on key developmental cooperation which has always played a central role in India’s foreign policy.

Since its independence, India has been steadfast in its commitment to being a reliable developmental partner in sharing its expertise with developmental partner countries. Principles in this cooperation are of equality, mutual respect for sovereignty, respect of action and choice. It stems from solidarity for mutual learning for shared and sustainable growth.”

ITEC Programme Officer, Mr. Vijayakumar K. explained that the fully funded bilateral assistance programme has evolved and grown over the years. Under ITEC and its sister programme Special Commonwealth African Assistance Programme (SCAAP), 160 countries in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, as well as Pacific and Small Island countries are invited to share in the Indian developmental experience, acquired over the six decades of the country’s existence as a free nation.

In recent years, ITEC resources have also been used for cooperation programmes conceived in regional and inter-regional context, such as the Economic Commission for Africa, Industrial Development Unit of Commonwealth Secretariat, UNIDO, the Group of 77 and G-15.

Its activities have also been associated with regional and multilateral organizations and cooperation groupings like the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC), African Union (AU), Afro-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO), Pan African Parliament, Caribbean Community (CARICOM), World Trade Organization (WTO) and Indian Ocean Rim – Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) and India-Africa Forum Summit.

Oil could be depleted in less than a century

The decline of the international petroleum industry has been forecast for over a century.   The Guyana offshore basin holds over over six billion barrels of oil an impressive find which follows extensive exploration by IOC led by ExxonMobil and Tullow, placing the multinational CARICOM state among the top producers. Geology, Investment and Policy will decide the life expectancy of the reserves.

Geologists note the discovery of Cretaceous and Tertiary plays. Cretaceous sands, formed over 65 million years ago in very deep waters are clean and permeable or porous, allowing reservoirs to be drained faster  than the younger Tertiary which has less porosity.

 11 of the 14 discoveries made by ExxonMobil are in the Cretaceous play.

Guyana’s reservoirs are superior to those of Trinidad and Tobago where faults placed small reservoirs across the basin, requiring more wells to drain a small surface area.

Being relatively easy to produce; the Guyana basin can be drained very quickly so the oil industry, given the existing discoveries, could end in less than 100 years. With evolving technologies smaller reservoirs could become economic using existing infrastructure, prolonging the life of the fields, including those in deep water..

Foreign investment by international companies is the key to longevity. The IOC have committed shareholders, a century of experience and technical expertise across the value chain. SOC as shown in Venezuela, while technically capable are subject to political interference, hindering progress and innovation.

Guyana lacks a publicly stated policy for managing the pace of depletion by the operators who will naturally continue to ramp up the development of the fields as quickly as possible and leave when their profit margins decline, diminishing the ability to ramp up capability to provide local content

Time is money. Their objective is to maximise profitability. Governments have to strike a balance between maximum profit and maximum recovery.

GUYANA IS PREPARING

The Department of Energy is preparing Guyana for a booming and fully functional oil sector. While all cannot be done simultaneously, plans are in the pipeline. Government earmarked funds from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for projects for the strengthening and management of the nascent oil sector.   Significant loans have already been agreed, and the government is in the process of agreeing on initiatives that will be targeted for next year including the completion of a depletion policy.