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GEORGETOWN, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Large oil companies Exxon
Mobil, Hess Corp, CNOOC, BP, Chevron, Total, and Eni are
expected to present bids to buy the first three cargoes of Liza
crude offered by Guyana's government, the South American
country's director of energy said on Monday.
A consortium of Exxon, Hess, and China's
CNOOC has discovered more than 6 billion barrels of
recoverable oil and gas resources off the country's coast. The
companies plan to begin exporting crude from the country, which
has no history of oil production, in January and February.
Mark Bynoe, Guyana's director of energy, told reporters that
the economics of the crude to be exported, a light sweet grade
called Liza, has not yet been determined. For that reason, the
government is first seeking to auction off the first three
cargoes of its share before entering into a long-term contract
to market the crude.
"Given Guyana's inexperience and the impending early date
for the first lifts, an introductory phase of the grade is more
advantageous to Guyana at this time," Bynoe said. "Guyana needs
to establish a quality and quantity standard."
He added that Guyana's Department of Energy had hired
Virginia Markouizos of the United Kingdom's RPS group to act as
an advisor to the government on the process.
Markouizos said at the press conference that the sale of the
first three cargoes would help determine "fair value" for the
Liza grade, adding that the current volatility in global crude
prices was "not good" for Liza.
"We are trying to create an environment whereby there is
standardization and stabilization," she said.
(Reporting by Neil Marks
Writing by Luc Cohen
Editing by Marianna Parraga)
