Guyana yesterday received commitments from Hess Corporation to support environmental sustainability and preservation projects here, and discussed the University of Guyana, the Iwokrama Conservation and Research Centre and education initiatives as a starting point.
“Hess’s CEO pledged his company’s support to Guyana’s green state development and said that they were prepared to support ways that they could partner with us…,” Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman told Stabroek News, yesterday following a meeting with officials from Hess and ExxonMobil.
Officials from Hess Corporation, which holds a 30 per cent interest in ExxonMobil’s offshore drilling operations in the Stabroek Block, met with President David Granger and Trotman at State House.
Chief Executive Officer of Hess, John Hess along with his company’s President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Hill, Executive Vice President at ExxonMobil Exploration Corporation Mike Cousins, Country Manager Rod Henson, outgoing Country Manager at Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Jeff Simons and Exxon’s Public and Government Affairs Manager Kimberly Brasington formed the foreign companies’ delegation.
Government reiterated its environmental sustainability and preservation and stance to oil explorators of the Stabroek Block Project, according to Trotman.
He pointed out that while President Granger expressed that he was eager to have oil production come on stream, he stressed that it has to be done in keeping with Guyana’s green development trajectory.
“We are very concerned about the preservation of the environment… We want the extractive industries to be developed in a sustainable way,” a release from the Ministry of the Presidency later quoted the President as saying.
Trotman explained that while nothing was concretized, thoughts were exchanged and government noted “quite a willingness expressed” by its oil partners to help Guyana’s development.
Hess’s CEO said his corporation was investing billions of dollars in Guyana and was committed to ensuring that this was done in a transparent manner.
“We are committed to your country. We are committed to being here… Hess is a long-term investor and we are very proud of the partnership with ExxonMobil and Nexen [Nexen Petroleum Guyana Limited] as well… We hope this development of Liza first and hopefully other prospects will transform your country and we will try to help you the best way we can to ensure that oil wealth is spent in the best way possible,” Hess said.
He also spoke of the importance, which his company attaches to social responsibility and assured Granger that his company stands ready to work with the government to address priority areas. “We are ready to work together to help you with your vision for the country to ensure that the oil treasure really becomes the people’s treasure,” Hess said.
On May 20, 2015, ExxonMobil announced a huge oil find in the Liza well in the Stabroek Block. Its drill ship encountered more than 295 feet (90 metres) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. It was safely drilled to 17,825 feet (5,433 metres) in 5,719 feet (1,743 metres) of water.
Thereafter, ExxonMobil announced plans for other wells in the Stabroek Block confident that there were more deposits. Several appraisal wells have already been sunk to evaluate the Liza find.
In September last year, the company confirmed that drilling at its Skipjack prospect had come up dry. The company however found success with the Payara well and announced results similar to the Liza well in January this year. The drillship Stena Carron drilled the Payara-1 well roughly 10 miles (16 km) northwest of the Liza discovery, encountering more than 95 ft (29 m) of good-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs.
Then late March, the company officially announced the discovery of oil bearing sands at its Snoek well.
A statement from the company said that drilling targeted similar aged reservoirs as encountered in previous discoveries at Liza and Payara.
