The women led Guyanese company that was awarded two oil blocks offshore Guyana, Sispro Inc, has landed a joint venture partnership with Nigerian-based Company Bono Energy Limited.

Sispro has now indicated its readiness to sign the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with the Government of Guyana.

Sispro was awarded a Shallow water block, and a Deepwater Block based on the 2022 Licensing Round.

However, the company initially found it difficult to lock in an operator with the technical capabilities and resources necessary to execute the work programme based on the new model Production Sharing Agreement.

In an interview with reporters on the sidelines of the Local Content Summit today, Sispro’s Chairwoman, Ayodele Dalgety-Dean and Company Secretary, Abbigale Loncke disclosed that the company has entered a joint venture agreement with Bono Energy.

“We have been in negotiations with a lot of different operators but I can say that we finally registered with Bono Energy,” Dalgety-Dean told reporters.

According to Dalgety-Dean and Loncke, with Bono Energy now on board, their company is prepared to sign off on the Production Sharing Agreement with the Government. That agreement could be signed within days.

“We are ready to go ahead, yes,” Loncke said.

Established in 2004, Bono Energy is considered one of the leading oil and gas trading brands in West Africa, and provides a range of energy solutions including trading, risk management, distribution, and logistics support.

Bono Energy Executive Director, Deji Fawole, who is currently in the country along with the company’s Head of Legal and Compliance Leke Solanke, said the company is prepared to sign off on the PSA alongside Sispro, and will have the US$13.8 million signing bonus paid within days of signing the agreement.

“The signing bonus is just under US$14 million…I believe we have 30 days to pay that, and we would be ready to pay it,” Bono Energy Executive Director said.

In total, the company is prepared to invest as much as US$600 million in the two offshore blocks, Fawole told reporters.

“We are in partnership with Sispro to develop the shallow water and the deep water blocks in Guyana, and we have funding to the tune about US$600 million for both assets to start up with and we are committed to Local Content development in Guyana, and to work with the Ministry of Energy in Guyana to develop the Oil and Gas Industry,” Fawole said.

But moments before Sispro unveiled its partnership with Bono Energy, the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, told reporters that the Guyana Government had hoped with great optimism to have the PSA signed a long time ago, but according to him, Sispro was not in a position to do so at that time.

According to him, internal issues are apparently now hindering the company from moving ahead with the signing.

“I am always optimistic and I wanted to sign this agreement a long time because it is a local group of young Guyanese women, who would have been the first group to sign a PSA but we live in a small society, and I am sure, you yourself know exactly what is happening, what are the intrigues behind the non signing of this agreement first. So, as soon as the company can fix whatever issues exist, we are ready as a government,” Minister Bharrat told reporters.

But Dalgety-Dean told reporters that those issues are now resolved, and Sispro is ready to move forward with its partner.

To date, the Government has signed Production Sharing Agreements with an international consortium comprising three companies – Total Energies, QatarEnergy and PETRONAS; and Ghanaian-based company Cybele Energy for two Shallow Blocks.

Cybele is still to pay up its signing bonus.

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