Gov’t to lift its first cargo of crude oil next week, no information on price revealed

With the ExxonMobil led consortium having lifted the first two million barrels of Guyana’s crude oil, the Guyana Government will have its first lift and sale of one million barrels sometime next week.

Guyana has always been third in line to lift and sell its first million barrels of oil which is part of the share the Government is entitled to under the existing contract.

But even as this lift is about to take place with Royal Dutch Shell having won the rights to market Guyana’s first cargo of crude oil, the Department of Energy refused to say on Monday what price the crude will be sold for.

Head of the Department of Energy, Dr Mark Bynoe told the media during a press conference at the Ministry of the Presidency that he “cannot discuss price here.”

He said the Government will be working with guidelines set out by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) for reporting on first trades.

“That is how this will be conducted,” he asserted.

This Government’s lift of its first million barrels represents part of Guyana’s profit oil allocation of 12.5%.

Additionally, the country will be receiving the 2% royalty on the gross production of oil produced.

Dr Bynoe reminded that the monies from the sale of Guyana’s crude and its cash-based royalty will be deposited into the Natural Resources Fund account that is being managed by the Bank of Guyana.

According to Dr Bynoe, representatives from Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) witnessed the first two lift exercises that occurred and from all reports, the lifts “went very well.”

To date, the liza1 well has produced 2.7 million barrels of oil.