Above: Guyanese President Donald Ramotar with officials from ExxonMobil (Photo: GINA)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Guyanese President Donald Ramotar met today with officials from ExxonMobil Exploration, who are in the country for their semi-annual meeting.

The two sides discussed the progress of offshore exploration in the country.

ExxonMobil is pursuing a drilling project on a deepwater offshore block through a joint venture with Shell, and has already shot a large seismic survey.

At this point, it’s still unclear what kind of impact the investment, if successful, would have on Guyana, according to Svein Utskot, ExxonMobil vice president of US and Latin America.

“I hate to speculate,” he said. “We are in a risky business — not everything turns out good but if we find something large it will have a very positive impact.”

Ramotar has held a series of talks with oil firms about the promise of Guyanese offshore exploration, including officials of Repsol, the international exploration company that is drilling the Jaguar Well through a joint venture with London-based Tullow Oil.

In the autumn, another US firm, Anadarko, met with then-President Bharrat Jagdeo about Guyana’s oil potential.