Recent media reports seen by the Stabroek Business indicate that EXXON Mobil, the lead player in Guyana’s oil exploration and recovery pursuits have been ‘talking up’ what one report describes as the company’s “astronomical oil exploration success offshore Guyana.” Much, reportedly, is being said by the US oil giant about its “more than 20 discoveries (offshore Guyana) which have yielded more than 10 billion barrels in proven oil reserves in just six years” according to a recent report sourced to the American market analysts S&P Global Platts.
Discourse about EXXON Mobil’s oil recovery exploits offshore Guyana at the December 5th – 9th World Petroleum Congress in Houston, Texas reportedly centred around the company’s “growing offshore developments and exploration efforts.” One report quotes the company’s Senior Vice President, Mike Cousins as alluding to the “incredible numbers………over 10 billion oil equivalent barrels” recovered offshore Guyana “in ten years.”
S&P Global Platts is quoted as saying that the Liza Phase I which came on stream late in 2019 is still the only one of the company’s twenty one discoveries offshore Guyana that is producing up to this time, yielding “about 120,000 b/d of oil, the maximum capacity of its floating production, storage, and offloading vessel,” the report says.
The Liza Phase 2 development is slated to commence early next year, while a third development, Payara, is expected to start in 2024 the Toronto-based Guyana Petroleum Digest says. Each of those is projected to produce 220,000 barrels per day” S&P Global Platts says. These are expected to be followed in 2025 with the startup of the #Yellowtail the capacity of which is around 250,000 b/d,, according to the report.
Already enjoying a ‘sky high’ profile in the global fossil fuel exploration and recovery sector Exxon Mobil is the lead operator of the Guyana block with a 45% stake, in partnership with Hess, with 30%, and China’s CNOOC, with 25%.
Platts is reportedly adamant that it is the extent of EXXON Mobil’s oil discovery success in Guyana’s Stabroek block that generated sustained industry interest in neighboring Suriname, the line of argument being that the subsurface geology was likely to extend beyond national boundaries. It is EXXON Mobil’s first Suriname offshore discovery which, the Guyana Petroleum Digest suggests, has generated the interest of other oil companies including the likes of Chevron and Total Energies in the Suriname basin.
