LatAmOil: Guyana to reserve offshore blocks for bilateral partnerships

Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali has said that his government intends to set some sections of the country’s offshore zone aside for partnerships with other countries under bilateral accords rather than including them in competitive licensing rounds.

Speaking at a press conference, Ali said that Georgetown intended to dispose of a number of unassigned blocks in this fashion. He did not identify any of the sites that might be subject to this arrangement but noted that the government of Barbados had also opted to reserve some of its licence areas for partner countries.

“We’re going to move to the auctioning of some blocks, and we have some blocks that are set aside for what is termed government-to-government partnership. And we’re looking at all our strategic partners with these blocks,” he stated.

Ali did not comment on whether such bilateral deals might affect the schedule for auctioning off unassigned licence areas.