Guyana explores oil, gas blocks award to India in govt deals- President (updated)

Engineers India

12/01/2023 11:08

(Recasts, adds comments from Guyana President)
    By Nidhi Verma
       NEW DELHI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Guyana is looking at
awarding oil and gas exploration blocks to Indian companies as
part of a broader hydrocarbon cooperation it is negotiating with
India, the South American nation's president said on Thursday.
    Guyana, home to one of the largest oil discoveries in the
last decade, has offered 14 offshore exploration blocks under
its latest global auction round.
    Indian companies can bid in the auction, Guyana's President
Irfaan Ali said on Thursday.
    "Apart from the auction, we are discussing
government-to-government partnership in a number of areas
including exploration," Ali told Reuters when asked if Guyana
would offer blocks to Indian companies through direct
negotiations.
    India is the world's third biggest oil importer and
consumer, buying over 84% of the oil it needs from overseas.
Indian companies are scouting for acreage overseas and want to
secure oil supplies through long-term deals.
    India and Guyana have formed two technical groups to look
into details of bilateral cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector
including oil supplies to India under long term deals, Ali said,
after a meeting with Indian oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
    Details would be finalised during a visit by Guyana's Vice
President H.E. Bharrat Jagdeo to India in February 2023,
according to an Indian government statement issued after the
meeting between Puri and Ali.
    India is diversifying its crude import sources and in 2021
imported Guyanese Liza crude. Refiners in India, however, have
not imported Guyanese crude since then as alternative cheaper
grades have been available from elsewhere.
    Guyana currently produces 340,000 barrels per day (bpd) of
oil and aims to raise it to 1.64 million bpd by end of the
decade.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N33V0SR
    At the government meeting, Engineers India Ltd  ENGI.NS 
signed an agreement to provide consultancy for a 300 megawatt
combined cycle power plant of state-run Guyana Power and Gas
Inc. in the South American nation.
 (Reporting by Nidhi Varma in New Delhi Editing by Alison
Williams and Elaine Hardcastle)
 ((nidhi.verma@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
nidhi.verma.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))