August 7, 2026 - TEMPO Networks

By NAN Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Fri. August 7, 2026: Guyana’s Maritime Administration Department is seeking a marine salvage contractor capable of recovering the MV Barima from 13 to 15 meters of water, some 28 nautical miles off the Essequibo coast, while preserving forensic evidence for the international Commission of Inquiry. While no company has publicly confirmed submitting a bid, several established marine salvage operators around the world have exactly the kind of regional and technical experience MARAD’s Expression of Interest is asking for.

Companies with relevant Caribbean and regional experience

Resolve Marine Group, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, is one of the largest marine salvage operators globally, with roughly $220-260 million in annual revenue and 40 years of heavy-lift salvage and refloating experience. Its proximity to Guyana and extensive Caribbean operating history make it a natural fit for MARAD’s requirements.

Titan Salvage specializes specifically in North Atlantic and Caribbean shallow-water refloating and environmental protection, conditions that closely match the Barima’s location, lying on its side in soft mud in relatively shallow coastal waters.

Ardent has secured an operating license specifically for the Caribbean region, one of the few salvage companies to do so, a credential that could matter given MARAD’s emphasis on companies experienced in Guyanese and wider Caribbean waters.

Svitzer Salvage Americas, a 175-year-old company with its Americas headquarters in Miami, has responded to salvage needs across North America and the Caribbean since 2009.

InterTug, based in Cartagena, Colombia, offers Caribbean-wide towing and salvage services, giving it direct regional and South American proximity to Guyana.

T&T Salvage brings global heavy-lift and large-scale maritime disaster response experience, including work as a contractor for the U.S. Navy’s SUPSALV program, relevant given the scale and forensic sensitivity MARAD is requesting.

What MARAD is actually asking for

Interested companies must submit Expressions of Interest limited to ten pages, detailing their corporate profile, salvage experience over the past five to ten years, technical approach, environmental protection measures, personnel and equipment, project timeline, and insurance and safety arrangements. Contractors must also explain how they will protect and document forensic evidence during the salvage process, and demonstrate the ability to stow the recovered vessel upright on a barge for several weeks.

Submissions are due electronically to MARAD no later than close of business on Friday, August 14, 2026. Shortlisted firms will then be invited to submit detailed technical and financial proposals before a contractor is selected.

NewsAmericasNow will continue tracking the salvage process as the deadline approaches.

RELATED: Guyana Case Against MV Barima Captain And Crew Adjourned To September 7th

By NAN Business Editor, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Thurs. Aug. 6, 2026: ExxonMobil announced second-quarter 2026 earnings of $14.5 billion on July 31, more than doubling its profit from a year earlier, as the war-driven closure of the Strait of Hormuz, China’s export halt, and Russian refinery outages compressed global oil supply and pushed margins to what CEO Darren Woods called levels that make Exxon “truly in a league of our own.” Guyana’s Stabroek Block, now producing roughly 900,000 barrels a day, a quarterly record, was central to that result.

ExxonMobil Just Posted $14.5 Billion In Profit As Guyana Is Still Burying Its Dead And Protesting In The Streets

The announcement landed in the same week Guyanese protesters were back in the streets, this time over allegations of conflict of interest involving two members of the Commission of Inquiry investigating the MV Barima disaster, the same investigation the government initially wanted to close by turning the wreck site into a memorial rather than salvaging the vessel families are still waiting to see recovered. “The second quarter was shaped by disruption, but defined by execution,” said Woods, ExxonMobil chairman and chief executive officer. “Markets were supportive, but our performance reflected the strength of the portfolio and operating model we have built over many years. “As conditions changed, we moved products where they were needed, optimized assets, and supported customers, leveraging our global integrated portfolio. We delivered strong earnings and cash flow, continued investing in advantaged opportunities, returned cash to shareholders, and strengthened the balance sheet. Importantly, we remain committed to further growing advantaged production to help meet the world’s need for reliable energy.”

The numbers behind the anger

Exxon does not break out a clean quarterly profit figure for Guyana specifically, but its full-year 2025 disclosures offer a stark comparison: ExxonMobil’s Guyana operations earned $4.67 billion in profit that year, alone representing over 16% of the company’s entire global earnings of $28.8 billion. That $4.67 billion nearly doubled what Guyana’s own government earned from its own oil in the same year, roughly $2.4 to $2.5 billion, despite a profit-sharing arrangement often described publicly as a 50-50 split. The gap exists because Guyana’s government share remains capped at 12.5% until Exxon finishes recovering its development costs under the production-sharing agreement, a threshold the company now expects to cross sometime in the second half of this year.

Meanwhile, Guyana’s own lowest-paid workers, the people building the roads and driving the vehicles funded by that oil wealth, earn a statutory minimum wage of $1.66 an hour, one of the lowest in the entire Caribbean. And separately, an unresolved IHS Markit audit has already identified $214.4 million in Exxon-claimed costs from 1999 to 2017 that auditors determined were either ineligible for cost recovery or lacked adequate documentation, a dispute the IMF has publicly urged Guyana to resolve “in a timely manner.” A second audit remains under review entirely.

A country asking who actually benefits

None of this means Exxon’s Guyana investment hasn’t transformed the country’s economy, it plainly has, fueling the fastest GDP growth on earth and financing highways, bridges, and infrastructure that didn’t exist a decade ago. But the same government riding that windfall couldn’t get a $12.7 million replacement ferry into service for three years, ran the vessel that eventually killed at least 73 people without insurance, and is now facing street protests over whether its own investigation into that disaster can be trusted.

Exxon posted $14.5 billion in three months. Guyana is still identifying bodies, still fighting over who sits on the commission investigating why they died, and still paying its lowest earners $1.66 an hour to build the country that oil money is supposed to be transforming.

NewsAmericasNow will continue tracking both Exxon’s Guyana earnings and the fallout from the MV Barima disaster.

Who Could Salvage The Guyana MV Barima? These Are Some Of The Companies With The Experience To Qualify