India intends to enter into a multi-year oil purchase agreement with Guyana and purchase interests in the South American country's exploration areas, Reuters reported citing the Guyanese minister of natural resources. On the sidelines of the India Energy Week in Goa, Vickram Bharrat informed reporters, "We will make a decision at some point in time" regarding the long-term sale of crude oil to India. He added that Guyana's cabinet has to approve any deals with India. India wishes to diversify its sources of crude oil. Earlier this month, India gave its approval to the signing of a five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) for energy co-operation with Guyana. Following their meeting with Hardeep Singh Puri, India's oil minister, Bharat also revealed that Indian businesses are keen to acquire shares in Guyana's exploration acreage through negotiations as opposed to a competitive bidding process. Notably, Indian companies didn't attend Guyana's latest oil and gas bidding round. "Our preference (for offering oil blocks for exploration) will be through bidding, and if there is any interest in any a particular block, we are willing to negotiate and enter an agreement," Bharrat said. When asked if Guyana would be willing to give Indian companies shares in the Stabroek block, he responded that Guyana could only give shares through negotiations in areas that it has relinquished. Later this year, the country might hold an exploration bidding round for the Stabroek areas that were given up as well as other blocks. "We have some relinquished acreage from Stabroek and other blocks so simply that means possibly we will have a bidding round possibly later this year," he said. Under the terms of the initial 2016 production contract, Stabroek, an Exxon-Mobil-led consortium in charge of offshore production in Guyana, was forced to return 20 per cent of its unexamined acres last year. He also mentioned the three floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) facilities that are present at the Stabroek block. According to Bharrat, the block's production has reached 650,000 barrels per day (bpd), and by 2027, the nation hopes to reach 1.2 million bpd. 2023 saw an average of 377,000 bpd of oil production in Guyana.
