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Exxon, Hess, and CNOOC plan to add a fourth production vessel to the ones already operating in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, Hess Corp.’s CEO has said, as quoted by Reuters.
The floating production, storage, and offloading vessel should reach its destination in the first quarter of next year, John Hess said, speaking at the Wolfe Research oil and gas conference. The start of operation for the new FPSO is scheduled for later in the year.
Exxon is currently producing a total of 665,000 barrels of crude daily in Guyana but over the longer term eyes production of over 1 million bpd. Total oil production in the country is seen rising to over 1.6 million barrels daily by 2030, as the government seeks to maximize returns from the industry before the predicted demand growth peak. If the peak demand predictions fail to materialize, the outlook for Guyana’s oil industry is even brighter.
Over the shorter term, Exxon was planning to boost production by 18,000 barrels daily by increasing the capacity of one already operating FPSO in the Stabroek Block. A senior company executive said last month this boost was in the plans but needed to get the green light from the Guyanese government first.
The new FPSO, for its part, will be stationed at the Yellowtail discovery, which is seen adding some 300,000 bpd to total production from the block, to a total of around 900,000 barrels daily. This, Reuters noted in its report, would make Guyana the fourth-largest oil producer in Latin America, after Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela.
The Exxon-led consortium was the first to start drilling for oil offshore Guyana. It had secured very favorable fiscal and tax terms for the Stabroek block before billions of barrels of oil were found in place, enjoying solid profits from the discoveries. Since then Guyana has tweaked its contracts to have the government’s share double to 27.5% but these terms apply for oil contracts outside the Stabroek block.
