As Guyana prepares to auction its remaining oil blocks this year, Minister of State for Energy Affairs of the State of Qatar, Saad Bin Sherida Al-Kaabi, has signalled the country’s clear intention to participate in that bidding process and acquire additional oil blocks here.
Al-Kaabi, who is also the Head of the state-owned Qatar Energy company, said that this plan to acquire additional blocks in Guyana is part of efforts to strengthen cooperation between the two states.
Already, the Qataris have a stake in the Kanuku Block offshore Guyana.
This joins the more than 40 blocks Qatar Energy owns around the world, including in countries near to Guyana.
And Minister Al-Kaabi said with numerous discoveries in Guyana already, Qatar is in support of continued development of the local, nascent oil and gas sector.
“We look forward to the next phase of exploration and development, hopefully finding more oil and gas together,” he told the News Room during an interview on Tuesday.
Asked if Qatar and the energy company would seek to participate in the upcoming bid round, Minister Al-Kaabi responded, “… we are interested in looking at additional blocks here and whatever auction is here, we would look to participate here.”
Qatar is a small but wealthy middle-eastern country that is among the world’s oil producers.
Because the country’s small geographic size and small population is similar to that of Guyana, Minister Al-Kaabi believes that Guyana can learn from Qatar’s successes in using oil and gas wealth to fuel its development.
He, however, believes that Guyana’s ongoing growth and expansion is being guided by practical plans. Even so, he pledged Qatar’s support as part of efforts to “enhance cooperation and investments together.”
The Qatari Minister and a delegation met with Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali and other members of government on Tuesday, on invitation of the President.
These talks focused on cooperation in the energy sector but a social media post from the Office of the President noted that discussions also included potential collaboration between the Governments of Guyana and Qatar in the areas of food, infrastructure and aviation. (Vishani Ragobeer)
