ExxonMobil sees potential for 10 Guyana offshore oil production vessels
Map showing 18 Exxon discoveries that could facilitate 10 oil developments.
Kaieteur News – ExxonMobil Oil supermxon plans for 10 Guyana offshore floating, production, storage and unloading (FPSO) vessels. A statement by ExxonMobil Global Vice President of Deep Water Projects, Jayme Meier during the Rio Oil & Gas 2020 digital conference early last month confirmed the projections made by analysts since August.
“We expect to have five FPSOs in operation in Guyana by 2026 and see the potential for a total of seven to 10 FPSOs,” Meier said on December 1.
Rystad Energy, an energy research and business intelligence company, made the first projection. He said in August last year that ExxonMobil will be able to install one FPSO ship offshore Guyana, every year for the next 10 years. The Norwegian Estate forecast that, in doing so, ExxonMobil would spend approximately US $ 50B in project penalty in the period. Exxon’s Meier gave no timetable for shipping.
John Hess, CEO (CEO) Hess, co-entrepreneur of Exxon Stabroek Block floated the idea in October after announcing that the latest analytics at the time placed 18 ExxonMobil discoveries on nine billion barrels of equivalent with oil.
To date, ExxonMobil and its partners have received approval for three major developments, Liza Phases One and Two, and Payara. The first has been producing oil since December 2019 using Liza Destiny’s FPSO, while Liza Phase Two and Payara are scheduled for first oil in 2022 and 2024 using the Unity and Prosperity FPSOs. Both are built by Dutch FPSO builder SBM Offshore in Singapore, each capable of producing as much as 220,000 barrels of oil a day. This will boost Liza Destiny’s production capacity of 120,000 barrels per day.
ExxonMobil is already planning for its fourth development in the Stabroek Block, with the discovery Yellowtail-1 a likely contender. This was revealed by Hess in September last year. According to Westwood Global Energy, an oil and gas researcher and information provider, Yellowtail-1 is believed to hold more than 300 million barrels.
S&P Global, an energy information provider, said Exxon’s successes in Guyana have sparked interest in other offshore areas along the equatorial edge of South America, such as in Brazil where Exxon has a portfolio of 28 blocks in multiple basins.
He said Exxon had previously held licenses in Brazil but left in the early 2010s after making no commercial discoveries. Now, it’s back.
Exxon also has several Suriname offshore licenses, where it made a discovery last month with a partner, PETRONAS.
Unlike these two countries, Guyana’s ability to keep pace with ExxonMobil and other oil companies is a growing concern among some prominent political commentators and industry experts such as the former Presidential Adviser on Petroleum, Dr. Jan Mangal. It has warned Guyana to develop its legislation and monitoring capacity before rushing to major oil developments.
Despite its underprepared capacity, Guyana is quickly approving field development plans (FDPs) introduced by ExxonMobil, which accumulates billions of US dollars. At the rate it audits costs submitted by ExxonMobil for its exploration and development work, Guyana will not be able to efficiently scrutinize costs claimed by oil companies before the country expires to challenge unreasonable claims.