By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com
The oil reserves of both countries have caught the attention of the international oil industry. This is not only due to the number of discoveries, but also because of the very low cost recovery prices, estimated to be US $ 35 a barrel and falling, associated with offshore drilling there.
The small South American countries, Guyana and Suriname, are the center of Latin America’s latest oil boom. A series of oil discoveries by ExxonMobil since 2015 in its offshore Stabroek-Guyana block that now sees the large global energy estimate that the block contains over eight billion barrels of recoverable oil resources, has caught the attention of the oil industry international.
According to some estimates, break-even prices in the Stabroek block have already dropped below US $ 35 a barrel. Liza’s phase two development, due to come online next year, raising the production capacity of Liza’s oilfield to 340,000 barrels per day, is expected to pump crude oil at a very low cost of US $ 25 per barrel. The quality of the crude oil found is also another factor explaining the significant interest in the Guyana-Suriname Basin.