Kaieteur block owners flipped block without doing any work

Just as the owners of the Canje Block flipped the licence without doing any work, the owners of the Kaieteur Block sold a large stake to ExxonMobil without doing what they committed to doing under the contract. By signing on to the contract, the companies agreed that they would have the technical, managerial and financial competence to carry out the exploration of the ultra deepwater Kaieteur block.

Ratio Energy, now known as Cataleya, and which had received a 50 percent stake in the block, is directed by Guyanese Ryan Pereira and Canadian Mike Cawood, who had no experience in oil and gas prior to receiving the Kaieteur Block. Notably, Pereira has links to both recipients of the Kaieteur

Block, as he represented Ratio Petroleum when it received the block in April, 2015 and is now a director in Ratio Energy (renamed Cataleya).

As for Ratio Guyana, the holder of the remaining 50 percent stake, it has a parent company, Ratio Petroleum, which has experience in oil and gas. Despite not having the capacity to conduct ultra deepwater drilling, Ratio Petroleum has been in the industry for decades. This company had no excuse for not doing work in the Kaieteur Block. Yet, that is exactly what happened as it held on to the licence for two years following receipt on April 28, 2015.Ratio Guyana (owned by Ratio Petroleum) and RatioEnergy (now Cataleya Energy) each sold 25 percent of their

Kaieteur Block ownership to ExxonMobil in March 1, 2017.

Global Witness said it gathered from Ratio Petroleum’s website that the companies didn’t even conduct seismic work before ExxonMobil bought its share. It was only months after Exxon bought into the block that the oil major started a seismic survey. Exxon’s work revealed that the Kaieteur Block has an estimated 2.1 million oil-equivalent barrels. The following men are the three co-founders of Ratio Petroleum, the company experienced enough to get some of the work done under the Kaieteur Block work programme, but didn’t. They also are directors of a large number of private and public companies.

(Kaieteur News)