Guyana, along with long-standing South American petro giants, Brazil and Argentina, continue to be in the ‘front row’ of countries in the hemisphere in terms of crude oil production, according to a September 4 disclosure by the globally regarded, Oslo-based independent energy research and business intelligence company, Rystaad Energy.
While the company asserts that South America, on the whole, experienced what it describes as “significant growth in crude oil production” it asserted that Venezuela’s oil production while currently “recovering” faces an uncertain future “due to political factors.” With regard to the outlook for Guyana, going forward, Rystaad asserts that the country’s “crude and concentrate production for August was projected to average around 520,000 bpd,” a 120,000 bpd m/m jump from July’s average of 400,000 bpd though it noted that this was “well below the country’s first-half average of 626,000 bpd.”
The Rystaad’s assessment of the wider performance of the local energy sector also recorded a July “pause” in production at the Liza Unity FPSO to install and tie back a 12-inch gas pipeline to the FPSO to transport gas onshore to the much-anticipated ‘liftoff’ of the country’s eagerly anticipated gas-to-shore development project which is aimed at adding significantly to the country’s pre-existing power generating capacity and by extension to its development ambitions. Reference has already been made to plans by the Government of Guyana to use around 50 million cubic feet per day of gas to generate 300 megawatts of electricity, an envisaged development which, if it materializes. should turn out to be a game-changer in a country plagued for decades by serious and costly kinks in its overall electricity generation regimen.
The expectation that Guyana will produce more than 610,000 bpd in the fourth quarter this year will likely bring 2024’s average to “a healthy 593,000 bpd.”
