Aramco to market Guyana crude for one year

State-controlled Saudi Aramco's London-based trading subsidiary ATL will receive a one-year contract to market Guyana's crude entitlement, natural resources minister Vickram Bharrat told Argus.

ATL was recently selected to market the next 1mn bl of Guyana's share of crude from the ExxonMobil operated deepwater Stabroek block.

"The company will eventually be given a one-year contract," Bharrat said.

The contract will begin when ATL markets a cargo scheduled for 21-22 September, and will run until August 2022.

The late September lift will be followed by another cargo by the end of 2021.

ATL was among 15 bidders in the Brent-linked tender for Guyana's light sweet Liza grade, and "was identified as the lowest compliant evaluated bidder at the price of $0.025/bl," the ministry said

Other bidders included Shell, US firms Chevron and Hess, Norway's Equinor, and traders Gunvor and Glencore. Proposed commissions ranged from $0.02/bl to $0.26/bl.

Guyana's first three 1mn bl cargoes in 2020 went to Shell. Hess picked up three more cargoes earlier this year.

The tender won by ATL was the first under a new government policy that replaced bilateral marketing arrangements.

ExxonMobil and partners US independent Hess and Chinese state-owned CNOOC unit Nexen started production from Stabroek in December 2019.

Production has reached 120,000 b/d, and the consortium is projecting output from four projects on Stabroek to reach over 800,000 b/d by 2025.

The next two loadings by ATL will bring Guyana earnings from oil since production started to more than $500mn by the end of 2021, Bharrat said.

The country's earnings from sales of its share of crude and royalties from the ExxonMobil consortium have reached $436mn, he said.

The earnings are being held in a new sovereign wealth fund at the Federal Reserve of New York.

By Canute James