Guyana and Dominican Republic make progress on oil drilling, refining

Dominican President Luis Abinader announced on Tuesday that Guyana and Dominican Republic have made progress in negotiating agreements for offshore oil exploration, a fertilizer factory and possibly a refinery to be built in South America.

In 2023, the countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work on projects in energy.

The Caribbean country has expressed interest in exploring Guyana’s Berbice off-shore block. This could require a re-delimitation of an area that was originally explored by a Toronto listed unit of CGX Energy, and eventually returned to the Government.

Both governments are interested in a new refinery that could be built in Guyana, but an agreement final is still pending. Refidomsa is the state-owned refinery in Dominican Republic.

Abinader stated at the Guyana Energy Conference held in Georgetown that "regarding oil refinery this is a major industrial and financial decision which requires a long term strategic plan." In the next few months, we'll need to make a decision.

The president of the Dominican Republic said that a study on petrochemicals was recently completed in the Dominican Republic for a fertilizer factory, which would produce urea primarily.

This plant will serve both regions at a time of limited global supplies and a product that continues to be crucial in the global food security.

Guyana has pressed a consortium headed by Exxon Mobil to supply natural gas from its floating production facility to shore to fuel power generation, petrochemical, and liquefied gas (LNG), projects that could increase revenue.

Exxon executives said last week that the group had completed a long awaited appraisal on its gas resources. This will allow for a more accurate calculation to be made of total gas output.

(source: Reuters)