GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — The Guyana government Tuesday announced that it had made another discover of oil in the Stabroek block as it continues “an aggressive programme of oil exploration”.

Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman, who made the announcement following a Cabinet meeting, said that the new discovery had been made four miles from the Payara well in the Stabroek block which is operated by the Us-based ExxonMobil affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana.

O“More details of this latest discovery which has occurred within the last 48 hours will be shared with the nation as we continue to have an aggressive programme of exploration and as we proceed towards production in 2020,” Trotman said in a brief statement.

“To date we have overseen the drilling of seven wells by Exxon, six of which have borne fruit in that they have proven good. One has not, but we have so far an excellent record and I would like to congratulate the crew of the Stena Carron drillship that has done 90 per cent of the discoveries without a day lost or any injuries or any man hour lost and that is commendable.

Guyana gained world attention in May last year, when ExxonMobil announced the discovery of more than 90 meters of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs about 120 miles off its coastline. The Liza-1 well was drilled to 5,433 meters in 1,742 meters of water, and is the first well on the Stabroek block.

Trotman also announced that the David Granger government will very soon establish the Department of Energy which will be housed in the Ministry of the Presidency.

Trotman has been appointed head of the Task Force which will be responsible for submitting to Cabinet a proposal on how the Department of Energy is to be structured and staffed. The Task Force will also comprise other ministers of government.

“Today we had a very lively discussion on the proposal which I presented and it has been determined and decided we will have the Department of Energy established and this will be coming in the next few months,” he said.