HOUSTON (Reuters) – Guyana’s vice president told a U.S. energy conference on Tuesday that the nation would develop its massive oil and gas discoveries with full environmental protections.
The tiny South American nation has become one of the most desired oil exploration hotspots after an Exxon Mobil-led group including U.S.-based Hess Corp and China’s CNOOC Ltd discovered about nine billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas off its coast.
“We have been called to leave our oil in the ground, we believe it’s totally unfair,” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said at an Offshore Technology Conference panel. “We’ll develop our oil industry putting in place regulations for safe, low carbon operations.”
Guyana this month sought bids from traders and commodity houses to market its share of the oil produced by its partners. With no state oil company nor domestic refining, it plans to turn over the marketing and sales to outside firms.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Chris Reese and Sonya Hepinstall)
