Gov’t not conducting independent assessments on oil reserves

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has made it clear that the government does not currently conduct independent assessments of oil reserves within the prolific Stabroek Block.

Speaking at his weekly Freedom House press conference on Thursday, the GS, who also serves as the Vice President, explained that the government is in the process of seeking consultants to begin independent assessments, but currently relies on quarterly estimates provided by Stabroek Block operator, ExxonMobil.

This clarification comes in light of Wednesday’s ExxonMobil press conference, when the company’s Country Manager, Alistair Routledge, said that the company’s figures on the amount of oil discovered in the Stabroek Block do not match those released by the government.

At a recent press conference, Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, announced an increase in the oil reserves by 600 million barrels, bringing the total Stabroek Block oil reserves to 11.6 billion barrels of oil.

However, during Wednesday’s engagement, Routledge said the Stabroek Block reserves are less than 11 billion barrels.

Dr Jagdeo expressed bewilderment at this revelation, explaining that the government’s figures are based on the quarterly submissions from Exxon.

“We should not have a different figure. We don’t do our own assessments. Now, we are recruiting someone to look at the reserves, to have an independent look at those issues. Either Exxon is not being truthful, or the ministry gave me the wrong figure,” the GS said.

He said that the ministry will be issuing a press release to offer more clarity on the oil reserve figures, maintaining that the government has not been conducting its own assessments.

“I don’t know of anybody that we have hired to check reserves, so it can’t be that we are doing our own assessment of reserves. Right now, the reserve figures come from Exxon. They have all of the data, they analyse the data, do the appraisal etc.,” he asserted.

The Stabroek Block is located approximately 120 miles east of the coast, with three Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSOs) vessels in operation.

Daily production in the Stabroek Block averaged 624,000 barrels per day (BPD) in the first half of this year compared to the approximately 380,000 BPD in the first half of last year.

In April, the government granted a Petroleum Production Licence to ExxonMobil, for the Whiptail Project, its sixth development project.

Construction of Jaguar, another floating, production, and offloading (FPSO) vessel identified for this newest development is well underway. It joins the Liza Destiny, Liza Unity, and Prosperity FPSOs, and when combined, will produce over half a million barrels of oil per day.

Whiptail’s first oil is targeted for end-2027 or early 2028 with development drilling to start in the second half of this year.

Furthermore, progress is being made on the Yellowtail and Uaru developments, with the Yellowtail on track for a 2025 start-up.