HOUSTON, (Reuters) – Guyana’s fourth oil floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility is expected to depart for this country in the first quarter next year, the CEO of U.S. producer Hess HES.N John Hess said today.
The firm, which alongside Exxon Mobil XOM.N and CNOOC 600938.SS are responsible for all oil and gas production in the South American country, expects the facility to add 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the group’s output capacity by 2026 through its fourth project, Yellowtail.
“The exciting thing for 2025 is Yellowtail,” Hess told the Wolfe Research oil and gas conference. The FPSO for Yellowtail “should be leaving the yard and sailing to Guyana in the first quarter… with the startup then later in the year,” he added.
Builder, SBM Offshore SBMO.AS, said in February the facility, called One Guyana, had left the drydock and moved to a yard in Singapore for completion. Its three topsides modules, completed in China, were in transit.
The Exxon-led group, which inaugurated output in the country in 2019, is soon to reach production of about 675,000 bpd after the upgrade to the third project.
The Yellowtail project, approved by Guyana’s environmental regulator in 2022, will increase the total volume to over 900,000 bpd, potentially turning Guyana into Latin America’s fourth largest oil producer after Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela.
Hess also said he would consider appealing a Federal Trade Commission’s ban on him taking a board seat at Chevron CVX.N once the Trump administration takes office. Hess and Chevron had agreed to the ban to move the merger ahead, he said.
