Five ministers attended an annual partnership meeting with ExxonMobil in Houston, Texas over the weekend and heard that the company will extract 120,000 barrels of oil per day in 2020 and the use of available natural gas is also on the agenda.
It is unclear if the trip was paid for by the government or ExxonMobil.
A release from the Ministry of Natural Resources yesterday said that on August 10 and 11, 2017, Ministers Carl Greenidge, Raphael Trotman, Winston Jordan, David Patterson and Dominic Gaskin, together with Presidential Advisor, Dr. Jan Mangal, and Technical Officers, Teresa Gaime and Kiran Mattai, of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Energy Agency respectively, participated in meetings and briefings with officials of ExxonMobil Develop-ment Co. and ExxonMobil Gas and Power Marketing Co. at the company’s Campus in Houston, Texas, USA.
The release said that several Ministers had attended similar briefings in 2016, and it was decided then, to have annual engagements of a comprehensive nature in preparation for ‘first oil’ in 2020 and beyond. The meetings follow the award of a Production Licence by Guyana for the Lisa Phase 1 development in June 2017, ExxonMobil’s and partners – Hess’ and CNOOC Nexen’s subsequent Final Investment Decision and the quantification of petroleum in the Payara well in July 2017.
At the August briefings the release said that the Ministers were provided with updates on developments with the Liza Phases 1 and 2. Phase 1 is to commence in 2020 to recover approximately 500m barrels of oil at a rate of 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) and phase 2 is expected to extract the remaining resource in the Lisa field in 2023 and beyond.
The release noted that contracts have been awarded for the Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel and the sub-sea infrastructure and connections necessary for production in deep-sea.
Discussions were also held on the proposed project to utilise available natural gas from the Liza well for energy generation by GPL and both sides scrutinised the various financial and fiscal models that will emerge from oil revenues in the post 2020 period.
The release said that both sides expressed confidence and satisfaction in the process and undertook to have follow-up discussions on the natural gas project within two months.