Evidence that Guyana’s now proven world class oil and gas resources continue to attract the attention of some of the world’s leading players in the industry has recently been underscored in the disclosure by Hess Corporation, one of the United States’ high-profile oil companies, earlier this week, that it will be allocating a huge slice of its 2023 US$3.7 billion capital and exploratory budget to exploratory work offshore Guyana.
The announcement comes just weeks before Guyana’s February 14th – 17th International Conference and which is expected to bring a retinue of international oil companies and experts to the country to further probe issues relating to the significance of the country’s only recently confirmed huge oil and gas resources and what those resources mean in the context of the wider global energy sector. Hess is part of a consortium of ‘big name’ oil and gas companies that includes the US’ global oil giant, ExxonMobil, that is currently operating in the Guyana drilling zone, which is currently one of the most talked-about global oil and gas hotspots.
Signaling that its attention is likely to be focused on Guyana’s offshore projects, going forward, the company says that 46% of its overall US$3.7 billion budget is allocated for offshore Guyana developments. Hess has also disclosed that US$90 million has been assigned to the Liza Phase 1 and Phase 2 developments on the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, which are currently operating at a combined gross production capacity of more than 360,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
It goes further, stating that US$1.21 billion would be allocated for developments on the Stabroek Block’s Payara, Yellowtail, and Uaru projects. Hess expects its net production to average between 355,000 and 365,000 boepd in 2023, compared with its forecast of 325,000 boepd in 2022.
In 2023, net production in Guyana is expected to average about 100,000 barrels of oil per day. Interest in Guyana’s position as a global oil and gas hotspot continues to grow and a year ago the local oil and gas jurisdiction was ranked tenth in the world in terms of competitiveness in exploration and production by International Handling Services (IHS) Markit by the company’s Vice President, Daniel Yergin, in a virtual address to Guyana’s 2022 International Energy Conference and EXPO.
The country is ranked the 10th most competitive jurisdiction for upstream [Exploration & Production] investment out of 45 countries, ahead of South American petro giants, Brazil and Venezuela, Yergin had said in his address to the 2022 Energy Conference and EXPO.
