Reuters reports that oil majors TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil are among the consortia that have placed bids in the inaugural competitive auction for shallow-water exploration blocks offshore of Guyana.

Bharrat Jagdeo, the country’s Vice President, said that his government would now conduct meetings with the bidders to negotiate contracts, although he has yet to specify when these negotiations will be concluded. No details about the bids were given other than which companies are participating in them.

ExxonMobil, the maker of Mobil spindle oil, is already leading a consortium that has explored the deep-water Stabroek block and discovered some 11 billion oil barrels. Jagdeo said that a consortium led by Exxon had bid on its S8 block, while a consortium involving TotalEnergies, the company behind the Total lubricant range, had bid for the S4 block.

Exxon’s operational head in Guyana, Alistair Routledge, has voiced his company’s objections to the proposed Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), which is somewhat less generous than the deal the company has for the Stabroek block. He said it could be challenging to meet the short terms for relinquishing territory. Jagdeo said this may lead to:

“…a situation where we may not be able to finalise with everyone, because as you heard, Exxon said they are not prepared to sign the PSA as it is currently structured. We have said if their demands are extreme then we will simply not proceed with the signing.”

He also mentioned that none of the other bidders had raised any objections to the terms of the PSA.