Oct. 17 (oilnow.gy) Guyana’s first competitive oil auction offered more shallow water blocks than deep water acreage. Eleven of the 14 blocks were in shallow water, and six were selected for negotiations in October 2023.
The round, launched in December 2022 and closed in September 2023, formed part of efforts to attract additional operators to Guyana’s offshore industry. Agreements signed in 2025 and a seismic program announced in 2026 outline exploration work aimed at assessing the shallow water acreage.
The shallow water selections included S3 for Guyanese company Sispro and S5 and S10 for International Group Investment Inc. A consortium of TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy, and Petronas was selected for S4. Liberty Petroleum and Cybele Energy were selected for S7, while ExxonMobil, Hess, and CNOOC were selected for S8. These were the bidding groups announced in 2023.
The S4 consortium signed its production sharing agreement on November 11, 2025. TotalEnergies operates the block with a 40% interest. QatarEnergy holds 35%, and Petronas holds 25%.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, S4 covers approximately 1,788 square kilometers. It lies between 50 and 100 kilometers off Guyana’s coast, in water depths ranging from 30 to 100 meters.
TotalEnergies disclosed an initial work program comprising 2,000 square kilometers of three-dimensional seismic acquisition. The surveys collect data used to map geological structures beneath the seabed.
Cybele signed a petroleum agreement and exploration license for S7 on December 9, 2025. The company had put forward a “conservative estimate” of 400 million barrels of recoverable oil. That figure represented Cybele’s assessment of the block’s potential.
Cybele also described S7 as lying about 50 kilometers from the Liza 1 and 2 fields, along an oil fairway extending toward Suriname.
A separate seismic initiative covers a broader portion of Guyana’s shallow water offshore. On March 11, 2026, Viridien and BGP announced an agreement with the ministry for a survey and imaging program across multiple lots, covering approximately 25,000 square kilometers. The companies said the data would support exploration planning and future licensing.
Viridien announced on August 6, 2026, that Phase I had commenced across a section of the planned survey area. This phase connects with existing surveys earmarked for reimaging. BGP handles seismic data acquisition, while Viridien is responsible for producing subsurface images.
Leave a Reply