Energy ministers say regional collaboration is key

4029930

Guyana is currently experiencing the “most exciting period” in its history with oil production anticipated to reach over one million barrels a day in the next four years, Guyana’s Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat told the Sunday Business Guardian.

“Presently we are producing on average 380,000 barrels per day. Our third FPSO (Floating production storage and offloading) -Prosperity-, should be in Guyana waters in my estimation mid-2023 for start-up and production late third or early fourth quarter this year and with that third FPSO it will take production to a minimum of 560,000 barrels a day,” Bharrat said.

“We have already signed a fourth production license that is Yellow Tail, that is under construction and that should be here in 2025 and that will take us up to, in my estimation, close 900,000 a barrel a day in 2025,” Bharrat said.

When Dr Ashni Singh, the Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, delivered Guyana’s budget statement on Monday he stated that the country’s oil and gas sector is estimated to have expanded by 124.8 per cent last year with a total of 101.4 million barrels of oil produced, compared with 42.7 million in 2021.

This performance was attributed to the commencement of production on the country’s second FPSO vessel–Liza Unity– early last year.

Last year the Liza Destiny FPSO produced crude oil at an average rate of approximately 128,000 barrels per day, compared with 117,000 in 2021, and the Liza Unity FPSO produced at an average rate of about 169,000 bpd, reaching a peak monthly rate of just over 233,000 bpd in December.

Last year, Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund received US$1,099.1 million in oil profit, US$510.2 million from Liza Destiny and US$588.9 million from Liza Unity.

The Natural Resource Fund (NRF) was established, by the Natural Resource Fund Act 2019, to manage the natural resource wealth of Guyana “for the present and future benefit of the people and for the sustainable development of the country.”

“We are currently reviewing the fifth development the Uaru development so this is being reviewed for approval,” Bharrat said.

It is anticipated that this platform will produce another 250,000 bpd following start-up in 2027.

These will enable Guyana to generate just over one million bpd.

But Bharrat said this bright future for Guyana will not be limited to that country alone.

And that regional integration is at the top of the agenda for Guyana.

T&T, he said, has a major part to play in that integration.

Bharrat said Guyana’s commitment to the region can be seen in the fact president Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali will be delivering remarks in person at the opening ceremony on the first day of the T&T Energy Conference which starts tomorrow.

The theme of the conference is “Navigating a Complex Energy Future”.

“President Ali has placed a lot of importance, and emphasis on the Caribbean and regional integration and we have seen that since he took over as president. And every time he speaks, he speaks about development not only for Guyana but for the region and we see our Caricom sister countries as important to us in this developmental process especially since T&T is close to us, Barbados is close to us, Suriname is close to us and there are synergies among us too now especially now that Guyana is an oil producing country and there is a lot that we can learn from T&T as well too,” Bharrat said.

“We know that a lot of T&T companies have already been established in Guyana, either by themselves or partnering with Guyanese here so we have a lot of Trinidadians bringing their skillset and their expertise to Guyana to help develop the oil and gas sector here too, so we don’t see the resources in Guyana as being resources to develop Guyana only but we know that the resources can be beneficial for the entire Caribbean community and president Ali has mentioned that he is demonstrating that in the way he is going about doing business basically in Caricom and in Guyana,” Bharrat said.

Bharrat said he sees it as “building a better partnership and forging more integration by and among our countries.”

“I want to wish all the people of T&T well at the Energy Conference and I hope that we will have a return visit,” he said.

Guyana will be hosting its own Energy Conference next month.

Dr Keith Rowley and Suriname’s President Chandrikapersad Santokhi are listed as speakers at that event.

“I know that we have had a lot in common over the years, we have had a good relationship with T&T and Guyana over the years we have a lot of Guyanese living in T&T and we will like to build on that relationship and find ways of working together for all of our people,” Bharrat said.

Speaking to the Sunday Business Guardian in a separate sitdown interview Energy Minister Stuart Young also lauded the benefits of regional collaboration with respect to energy.

Young who will be participating in the Energy Conference tomorrow said his goal in attending the conference is two-fold.

“We have been working on the regional relationship with Guyana and Suriname. T&T, Guyana and Suriname in my humble opinion have to lead the way for energy security in the Caricom with potential in Barbados, they have found some gas in Grenada that T&T has already signed an MOU for. We have to lead that conversation and I think we will be stronger, that is T&T, Guyana and Suriname, working together on the global platform and in dealing with multinationals,” Young said.

Young said T&T has had significant experience dealing with multinationals.

In fact, Young said, he has spent a lot of time since 2016 renegotiating with multinationals to the benefit of the people of T&T.

“The relationship on the governmental level between T&T and Guyana is extremely strong. President Ali is constantly in conversation, and communication with Prime Minister Rowley and we have developed an excellent relationship with president Ali and his Cabinet members so there is a very close relationship there, one of the closest that I have seen in my transactions in the Caricom over the last few years and there is mutual respect and we are here to help in whatever way we can and we will work with them,” he said.

Young said the government wants to assure all stakeholders, that it is committed to continuing to work with them for the development of this province.

“We are a mature province which means we have been exploiting oil for over a 100 years and gas for decades. It depletes so there are fewer reserves and it becomes more and more difficult to find to produce, to monetise but we as a government have shown by our track record. When you ask the stakeholders, we are prepared to sit down to work out terms that are beneficial to both sides, the people of T&T, as well as we understand that every multinational has to produce returns and profit but we are not going to give away our resources and we will work with them to continue exploration and production and that is the messaging that I want to come out in the energy conference,” he said

This Thursday’s Business Guardian magazine (January 26) will be a special energy publication.

In separate articles in that magazine, Young tells us how he feels about his performance since being named Energy Minister in April 2021, and Bharrat tells us how Guyana has dealt with becoming one of the latest powerhouses in hydrocarbons while the world transitions to cleaner energy.