FOLLOWING today’s meeting, the Cabinet of Ministers has reviewed submissions from international consultants and the evaluation team, and has decided to award auctioned oil blocks to a number of companies, including local companies, according to General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.
Dr Jagdeo said during a press conference at his party’s Robb Street, Georgetown, headquarters, today, that further details will be released by the Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat.
The PPP GS said now that the awards have been made, government will meet with the successful bidders for negotiation on the contracting which would then move towards the completion of the award.
“We’ve made it clear before that the Model PSA– the fiscal terms are now going to change. We said we are not going to change the major planks in the PSA dealing with transparency and accountability.
“We are open in the negotiations with all these companies to minor changes in the PSA, but we are not touching the fiscal terms,” Dr Jagdeo said.
General Secretary Jagdeo said one company, ExxonMobil which bid along with CNOOC and HESS, expressed reservations with signing to finalise the bid arrangement if the terms of the PSA are not re-examined.
Dr Jagdeo made clear that if the demands are extreme, “we will not proceed with the signing in that regard.”