HOUSTON, May 8 (Reuters) - Guyana's cabinet has approved

a bid for an offshore oil block by a consortium including

QatarEnergy, TotalEnergies and Malaysian

state-owned Petronas, a minister from the South

American country said on Wednesday.

Guyana, home of the largest oil discoveries in nearly a

decade, offered 14 offshore blocks in September in its first

competitive auction that attracted bids from the consortium, as

well as an Exxon Mobil ( XOM )-led group that has been

responsible for all the nation's output to date.

Guyana has not yet awarded any of the blocks.

After accepting the bid from the QatarEnergy,

TotalEnergies and Petronas group for shallow water block S-4,

the government is negotiating terms of a production sharing

agreement (PSA) with Guyana's energy ministry, Minister of

Public Works Deodat Indar said at the Offshore Technology

Conference in Houston.

"They applied for their go-ahead, for their exploration

activities," Indar told Reuters. "The cabinet has cleared it,

but they are working through their PSA with the ministry of

natural resources.

Spokespeople for TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy and Petronas

did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The Exxon-led group also is in talks with the ministry over

its bid for a separate shallow water block, S-8, Exxon Guyana

Country Manager Alistair Routledge said on the sidelines of the

conference.

The Exxon group, which includes Hess and CNOOC

Ltd, has announced discoveries of more than 11 billion

barrels of recoverable oil and gas resources since 2015. It is

producing about 650,000 barrels of oil per day.