Guyana to sign new offshore oil deal with Cybele for S7 shallow-water block

Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat on Friday confirmed that the government will sign an agreement with Cybele Energy Limited, clearing the way for development of its shallow-water oil block.

Speaking at the launch of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo 2026 at the Aiden Hotel, Minister Bharrat announced that the block awarded to Cybele is Block S7. He clarified that Cybele has full responsibility for the shallow-water block, despite its earlier partnership with Liberty Petroleum Corporation.

“Cybele has really advanced the negotiation to the stage where we’ve finalized the agreement with them, and that is the company we will be signing with on Tuesday,” the minister stated.

Bharrat noted that most shallow-water licenses issued under the first offshore auction, conducted under a revamped petroleum licensing framework, cover an area of about 200 square kilometres.

He also confirmed that the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) to be signed with Cybele follows the same framework as the one signed with TotalEnergies.

“It is the same PSA that was signed with Total. The delay in completing these agreements was because we wanted one PSA for all the companies awarded shallow-water blocks, so we now have a single shallow-water PSA,” he explained.

Under the new agreement, the fiscal terms remain unchanged. Companies must pay a fixed 10 per cent royalty and a 10 per cent corporate tax, and are allowed cost recovery up to a defined cap—measures intended to balance investor interest with fair returns for Guyana.

These terms reflect the government’s updated model PSA introduced during the 2022 licensing round, which increased the royalty rate from 2 per cent to 10 per cent, set a 65 per cent cost-recovery ceiling, and instituted a 10 per cent corporate tax. Profit-oil sharing after cost recovery remains split 50/50.

Guyana’s strategy to award shallow-water blocks to a wider range of international and regional companies aims to accelerate exploration beyond the deep-water areas long dominated by major energy producers. In November 2025, a consortium comprising TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy and PETRONAS became the first to finalize a PSA under the new fiscal regime for Block S4.