Guyana chooses Aramco Trading Limited to market Liza crude

Guyana has picked Saudi Aramco subsidiary Aramco Trading Limited (ATL) to market its entitlement of crude from the offshore Liza 1 well, the Ministry of Natural Resources said Sept. 4.

ATL is the United Kingdom-based subsidiary of Aramco Trading Company, which is a subsidiary of the Saudi state oil company.

"ATL was identified as the lowest compliant evaluated bidder at a price of 0.025 cents per barrel," the ministry said in a statement.

The lowest bidder was Chinese company Sinochem, at 0.02 cents/b, the ministry said.

The ministry said ATL would market Guyana's fourth lift for 2021, scheduled for Sept. 21-22.

The marketer would be responsible for finding a buyer for the estimated one million barrels of crude being produced by the Liza Destiny, an FPSO.

The ministry said the evaluation process included administrative, technical and financial assessments, which saw submissions from 15 firms.

The other bidders were: Bibi Energy Trading, Shell Western Supply and Trading, Chevron, Petraco Oil, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Natural Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago and Heritage Petroleum, Hess, Vitol, Mercuria Trading, TotalEnergies, Litasco and Trafigura.

Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat said in the statement that the Guyana government is committed to securing the "best agreements" for the country, and further pledges to the "maintenance of the highest level of compliance and transparency to ensure that the benefits from this sector improve the lives of all Guyanese."

The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board is next week expected to be officially informed about the outcome of the evaluation that was done by local and foreign experts.

Guyana has so far sold 7.056 million barrels of crude for $388.7 million since oil production from Liza Phase 1 began in 2018.

Under the production sharing agreement, the Guyana government, ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC are each entitled to sell crude from the well.