15 companies await decision to market Guyana crude

Guyana is expected to pick its new crude oil marketer from a list of 15 companies that submitted bids to the procurement authority of the South American nation, an official said Aug. 20.

The secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Joslyn McKenzie, said the "process is still ongoing" as the small, burgeoning energy producer chooses from many of the world's top oil traders.

The companies were hoping to get the nod to market Guyana's entitlement of the light sweet crude being produced by the ExxonMobil-operated FPSO Liza Destiny.

The London-registered oil trader for China's Sinochem submitted the lowest bid price of 0.02 cent, and the highest was bid by the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago and Heritage Petroleum for 0.26 cent.

Other officials said the local and foreign evaluators have to examine each bid in detail because there might be hidden costs that could alter the actual bid price.

Hess Corp., which is a stakeholder in the ExxonMobil-led consortium in the prolific Stabroek Block, has bid to be the oil marketer at a price of 0.07 cents. Hess had sold Guyana's fourth lift, 998,629 barrels, in December 2020.

The Ministry of Natural Resources said it wanted a crude marketer that had experience in crude oil marketing and trading as a company with a minimum of 10 years' experience.

The successful company must also have experience in crude oil trading and marketing volumes by geography over the last three years with verifiable similar services with national oil companies and governments as well as crude oil trading and marketing volumes of no less than 20 million barrels within the last year.

The other bidders were Shell, Chevron, Petraco Oil, CNOOC, Vitol, Mercuria Energy, TotalEnergies, Equinor, Lukoil, Trafigura, Saudi Aramco and BB Energy.