Introduction
When ExxonMobil and partners announced their first discovery in May 2015, this was preceded by 45 unsuccessful wells drilled over five decades. From May 2015, to the end of the first year of oil exports, 17 more discoveries were announced by 2020. By any metric, this is a phenomenal creaming curve; and indeed, historically unprecedented.
In 2016, I had ventured the view that, Guyana’s petroleum resources far exceeded the then Exxon Mobil estimate of 600 million to 1.3 billion boe, announced soon after its 2015 discovery. Many urged then, and some still do so now that, my initial estimate of 13-15 billion boe by the early 2030s, was hopelessly optimistic.