LatAmOil: Guyana starts first competitive offshore licensing round

Guyana has launched its first-ever competitive oil and gas licensing round and is now accepting bids for 14 offshore blocks, the country’s Ministry of Natural Resources said on November 4.

The ministry announced the opening of the auctions in a statement, saying that the government had completed the process of identifying the blocks that were to be included in the bidding contest. It did not name the blocks covered by the auctions, but it did say that these would cover three offshore ultra-deepwater blocks and 11 shallow-water blocks.

Both local firms and international oil companies (IOCs) will be permitted to submit bids for these assets, provided that they can meet other project requirements and pay the necessary subject bonuses of at least $10mn for shallow-water sites, or more than $20mn for deepwater sites.

The bidding process is likely to take around five months and should be wrapped up by the end of the first quarter of 2023, the ministry has said.