Showing posts sorted by relevance for query EXXON GUYANA. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query EXXON GUYANA. Sort by date Show all posts

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Exxon’s oil drilling gamble off Guyana coast ‘poses major environmental risk’


Experts warn of potential for disaster as Exxon pursues 9bn barrels in sensitive marine ecosystem


The Bob Douglas drill ship operated by Noble Energy for ExxonMobil floats 120 miles offshore of Guyana in 2018. It was drilling the first production oil well in Guyana’s history. Photograph: Christopher Gregory/The Guardian

Supported by

Antonia Juhasz for Floodlight
Tue 17 Aug 2021 


ExxonMobil’s huge new Guyana project faces charges of a disregard for safety from experts who claim the company has failed to adequately prepare for possible disaster, the Guardian and Floodlight have found.

Exxon has been extracting oil from Liza 1, an ultra-deepwater drilling operation, since 2019 – part of an expansive project spanning more than 6m acres off the coast of Guyana that includes 17 additional prospects in the exploration and preparatory phases.

By 2025, the company expects to produce 800,000 barrels of oil a day, surpassing estimates for its entire oil and natural gas production in the south-western US Permian basin by 100,000 barrels that year. Guyana would then represent Exxon’s largest single source of fossil fuel production anywhere in the world.

But experts claim that Exxon in Guyana appears to be taking advantage of an unprepared government in one of the lowest-income nations in South America, allowing the company to skirt necessary oversight. Worse, they also believe the company’s safety plans are inadequate and dangerous.

A top engineer who studies oil industry disasters, as well as a former government regulator, have leveled criticisms at Exxon. They say workers’ lives, public health and Guyana’s oceans and fisheries – which locals rely on heavily– are all at stake.
The Indigenous communities that rely heavily on fishing could be devastated in the event of a major spill. Photograph: Christopher Gregory/The Guardian

“Exxon is only going to be here for 20 to 25 years,” said Vincent Adams, Guyana’s former environment chief. “When they make all their billions, and they’re ready to pack up and they’re gone, we’ve got to deal with the mess.”

Environmental campaigners and activist shareholders suggest Exxon also cannot reconcile the project with its public commitments to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions.

Exxon claims its climate goals are “some of the most aggressive” in the industry, but its operations in Guyana will send more than 2bn metric tons of climate-destroying CO2 into the atmosphere.

Exxon contends that the company complies with all applicable laws in Guyana and adhered to a rigorous process to obtain environment authorization for its projects there. “Our work and the support of the government of Guyana are the basis of a long-term mutually-beneficial relationship that has already created significant value for the people of Guyana,” Exxon said in a written statement in response to questions from the Guardian.

Exxon’s ‘cash cow’


Robert Bea, among the world’s foremost forensic engineers and a leading expert on the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, worries that Exxon’s operations appear to lack the appropriate preparation or planning to head off a deepwater blowout and major oil spill. “I am far from comfortable,” Bea, co-director of the Marine Technology and Management Group Center for Risk Mitigation, said. “They should be too.”

Vincent Adams suggests Exxon is cutting corners to increase profits. Exxon “has no respect for the people’s health, safety and environment”, he said. Adams, a petroleum and environmental engineer, worked for 30 years at the US Department of Energy before returning to his native Guyana in 2018 to become executive director of the Environmental Protection Agency. He was let go in August 2020 when a new government came to power, and as his agency was trying to negotiate a stringent permit with Exxon.

Before Exxon’s operations, Guyana had no meaningful fossil fuels production, a point of pride for Melinda Janki, a Guyanese international environmental lawyer who is suing Guyana’s government to strip Exxon of its leases on climate and human rights grounds. She noted that rich rainforests cover 80% of Guyana, making it a carbon sink that absorbs far more of the planet-heating greenhouse gas than it emits. In 2015, Guyana made a commitment under the Paris climate accord to eliminate any reliance on fossil fuels.

But those achievements are now being undermined by Exxon, she said. The result of Exxon’s Guyana operations – from drilling the oil to burning it in cars – would be the release of 125m metric tons of carbon dioxide per year from 2025 to 2040. That’s roughly the equivalent of 15 large coal-fired power plants, according to Mark Chernaik, staff scientist at the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide.

Moreover, Exxon flares, or burns, its excess gas. In the first 15 months of production alone, that flaring contributed nearly 770,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions – the equivalent of driving 167,000 cars for one year.

In 2015, Exxon became the first company to strike a significant oil find in Guyana. It then swiftly pushed through a contract roundly criticised as one-sided in its favor. Exxon’s oil finds kept coming. It now estimates there are 9bn barrels of oil off the coast of Guyana. The Liza 1 prospect is the first to start pumping, with Exxon operating in deeper waters and nearly three times farther from shore than BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Exxon’s interest in Guyana is straightforward, according to Palzor Shenga, vice-president of analysis at Rystad Energy. The costs per barrel of oil produced in Guyana are a full $5 to $10 cheaper than the global average, making it, in Shenga’s words, a “cash cow”. This helps explain why Exxon began producing oil approximately twice as fast as “the industry average for projects of this size”, as Exxon boasted in its 2020 annual report.

Exxon told the Guardian that the “record pace” at which it is bringing projects online yields cost savings, which benefit Guyana. Critics say Exxon’s contract terms are lopsided. The government is receiving a below average return on Exxon’s projects, according to industry analysts at IHS Markit. Exxon receives more than 85% of the proceeds, the result of the government and public largely “absorbing Exxon’s costs”, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

Exxon said that it will continue to “generate billions of dollars of revenue” for Guyana. Yet Guyana’s government has reported it has made just $309m from the projects since they began, while ExxonMobil and its partners had brought in roughly $1.8bn, said Tom Sanzillo, IEEFA director of financial analysis.

The Guyanese coast could be inundated with oil in the event of a disaster in Exxon’s offshore drilling operations. Photograph: Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images

Former EPA chief Adams says Exxon exercises undue influence over government officials, who are far too often intimidated by the company. He cites, as one example, Exxon’s consistent flaring of gas, despite assurances to the government that it would not.

According to Exxon, the flaring is the result of a faulty gas compressor it has been unable to repair for more than a year and a half.

Janki recounted watching with horror a massive fire in the Gulf of Mexico last month, when a gas pipeline at a Pemex offshore oil platform set the ocean ablaze with what looked like waves of molten lava.

“What is really terrifying,” said Janki, is if Exxon’s failures are symptoms of a rushed job and potentially systemic problems that could have catastrophic ends.
The spectre of Macondo

The greatest anxiety is over the risk of an event like the Macondo – the BP well that blew out in 2010, resulting in the deaths of 11 men aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig and the world’s largest offshore drilling oil spill.

In 2017, Exxon submitted a 500-page environmental impact statement on Liza 1 to Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency, stating: “Unplanned events, such as a large oil spill, are considered unlikely to occur because of the extensive preventative measures employed.”

Petroleum engineer Robert Bea said it was reminiscent of BP’s original plans for the Macondo well, which stated, it is “unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur from the proposed activities”. Asked if such contentions are “typical” in offshore drilling, he said: “absolutely not”. Rather, he says, they reveal “ignorance of risk management fundamentals”.

Bea worked for Shell Oil before becoming one of the world’s premier safety and disaster investigators. He served as a principal investigator on the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Piper Alpha offshore oil disaster that killed 167 men in the North Sea, the Exxon Valdez grounding and the crash of the Nasa Columbia space shuttle.

Bea reviewed more than 1,000 pages of Exxon submissions and government permits for Liza 1, to conduct an exclusive analysis for this reporting, and concluded that: “We could have a problem similar to what we had with BP before and after the Macondo disaster.”

He said he found no evidence of the necessary planning and operations needed to “assess and manage the risks associated with high risk offshore exploration, production, and transportation operations”. Exxon is instead offering superficial safety plans based on unsubstantiated claims of its capabilities in Guyana that fail to take account of the highly hazardous risks associated with its operations, he said.

There are “loose ends, assumptions, and premises that are not substantiated” in Exxon’s plans, Bea said. “And the more of these threads that you tug at, the more concerned you become that what’s being done here is superficial.”

In particular, Bea is worried about a loss of well control, or blowout – which could cause a catastrophic oil spill. He finds that Exxon has not kept the risks of such events as low as “reasonably practicable”, based on the documents he reviewed. Bea cites numerous problems with Exxon’s plans.

If a blowout occurs in Guyana, Exxon says it would be contained within 21 to 30 days –an estimate Bea said is far too optimistic, unsubstantiated and improbable.

He points in particular to the inadequate provision of the tools needed to stop a blowout and oil spill, namely a capping stack and relief well.

Similar concerns raised by Bea to officials in Australia resulted in the government there strengthening its requirements, which ultimately led BP to withdraw its plans to drill in the Australian Bight.

In addition Exxon’s plans for a potential oil spill response rely on methods that were heavily criticized when deployed in previous disasters. Exxon intends to use Corexit 9500, a chemical dispersant banned in the UK and faulted for severe human and environmental harms when used in the Exxon Valdez and BP oil spills. Exxon also intends to burn oil on the ocean surface even though it is drilling in the Amazon-Orinoco Influence Zone, an area rich in marine biodiversity, with rare and threatened species on which local Indigenous and other fishers depend.

Even with these measures, Exxon estimates a spill could send oil throughout the Caribbean Sea, across Trinidad and Venezuela, and as far as Jamaica. Exxon is relying on Guyana’s recently drafted national oil spill response plan; yet there remains a wide chasm between what’s written on paper and the government’s ability to implement it, argued former EPA chief Adams.

Adams said Guyana has insufficient equipment, personnel, expertise, funding and clear lines of responsibility to respond in a disaster. Adams also worries that the government will be forced to foot the bill if there is a disaster, because Exxon is placing liability for the project with a subsidiary.

‘Guyana is wholly unprepared for a Macondo,’ said Melinda Janki.
 Photograph: Andres Leighton/AP

“Guyana is wholly unprepared for a Macondo,” said Janki, who formerly served as in-house legal counsel for oil giant BP and drafted many of Guyana’s national environmental laws. The results of a blowout were catastrophic in the United States despite ample money, experience and infrastructure, she said, and “Guyana doesn’t have any of that.”

Exxon did not respond to the specific claims made by Bea, Adams and Janki, but said it has adhered to Guyanese laws and instituted “robust compliance assurance systems that enable identification and timely reporting of operational issues with the Environmental Protection Agency and Ministry of Natural Resources” of Guyana. Guyana’s government did not respond to requests for comment.

Adams said while Exxon would not deliberately cause an accident, “they’re going to bring it to the line [and take] the chance that nothing is going to happen until something happens. That’s what keeps me up at night.”
Investor woes

Exxon has come under public attack by its shareholders over its continued commitment to fossil fuels and inaction on climate. In May, shareholders voted in three new board members committed to diversifying Exxon’s operations and hitting meaningful targets to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

The investor advocacy group, As You Sow, criticized Exxon’s plans to open a massive new oil frontier in Guyana in the face of the International Energy Agency’s recent recommendations that there should be no investment in new fossil fuel supply. “Exxon’s activities in Guyana pose grave material risks to the company from an economic, legal, and human rights standpoint,” argued As You Sow CEO Andrew Behar. “We believe it’s fundamentally a flawed mission” that should be shut down.

Massive new oil production in Guyana raises other potential legal red flags for investors, warned Kathy Mulvey, the accountability campaign director of the Union of Concerned Scientists. She cited the court ruling in the Hague last month finding Shell liable for its contributions to climate change and said that other oil companies will also have to “reduce the worldwide oil and gas extraction.”

“We’re concerned that the people of Guyana are being asked to bet their economy and their future on oil when oil has no future in a carbon-constrained world,” said Carroll Muffett, president of the US Center for International Environmental Law.

In recent press statements, Exxon has reasserted its support of the Paris Agreement, yet failed to respond to these specific investor concerns, citing instead the significant economic development and job creation for Guyana that its operations provide there. Janki said she hopes more people will come to see what is at risk from Exxon’s operations in Guyana.

“We are facing a decision: our survival, or the survival of the fossil fuel sector,” Janki warned.

Is This South America’s Last Great Oil Boom?

The Guyana-Suriname basin is gaining considerable attention from big oil despite the threat of peak oil demand and global push to significantly reduce carbon emissions. The U.S. Geological Survey calculated that the basin had mean undiscovered resources of 15.2 billion barrels of crude oil, 2.3 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 42 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Those numbers along with ExxonMobil’s exceptional exploration success in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana, with 21 high-quality oil discoveries, highlight the considerable hydrocarbon potential of what could be the last major offshore oil boom. The considerable potential of the Guyana-Suriname basin saw the USGS commit to reassessing its hydrocarbon potential in late-2019 but that was delayed by the pandemic. While Guyana is at the heart of what is emerging as South America’s hottest offshore oil boom, things continue to heat up on the Suriname side of the oil basin. Apache and partner TotalEnergies are experiencing substantial success in offshore Suriname Block 58. Since January 2020 the partners, which each hold a 50% share in Block 58 where TotalEnergies is the operator, have made four significant oil discoveries in the block. Then in late July 2021, while conducting appraisal drilling in Block 58 near the Sapakara West discovery, TotalEnergies made another discovery with the Sapakara South-1 well. 

Source: TotalEnergies.

That latest discovery brings the total number of discoveries in offshore Suriname Block 58 to five. Block 58 is adjacent to the prolific Stabroek block and is situated on the same crude oil fairway, meaning there will more than likely be further oil discoveries in the immediate future. When the Sapakara South -1 well is complete the Maersk Valiant drillship will move to drill the Bonboni prospect approximately 45 kilometers to the north.  

The crude oil found is described as high quality with API gravities of 27 to 45 degrees. Those characteristics and the assay for Exxon’s Liza crude oil grade, which has an API gravity of 32 degrees and 0.58% sulfur content, indicate that the basin’s petroleum resources are light and relatively sweet. That is important to note because demand for sweet medium and light crude oil is expanding at a solid clip because of stricter fuel emission regulations and the push to decarbonize the global economy in a post-Paris climate accord world. Those events see big oil shying away from investing in carbon-intensive petroleum projects. It is those operations that involve the exploitation of sour heavy and extra-heavy crude oil grades that are carbon-intensive to extract and refine. For those reasons, in accordance with plans to focus on low carbon intensity projects, TotalEnergies chose to hand its 30.32% in Venezuela’s extra-heavy crude oil Petrocedeño operation to national oil company PDVSA at a $1.38 billion capital loss.

TotalEnergies, however, is committed to continuing its exploration and development drilling in Block 58 offshore Suriname, which some analysts believe could hold up to 6.5 billion barrels of oil. Aside from targeting the Bonboni prospect for drilling the energy supermajor and partner Apache plan to conduct flow testing of the Sapakara South-1 well before the end of 2021. Exxon with 50% partner Petronas, which is the operator, discovered hydrocarbons with the Sloanea-1 exploration well in offshore Suriname Block 52 during December 2020. That block is to the north of Block 58 and also believed to be on the same oil fairway which contains the discoveries made in the neighboring offshore Guyana Stabroek block.

Aside from the attractiveness of the crude oil grades found in Block 58, it is estimated that offshore Suriname will have an average breakeven price of $40 per barrel once the discoveries are developed and enter production. While that is higher than the $35 currently pegged for Liza Phase one in the Stabroek block in Offshore Guyana they are among some of the lowest in South America and should fall as additional infrastructure is established. Suriname’s national government in Paramaribo is determined to make the former Dutch colony into a major regional oil producer. As part of that strategy, national oil company and industry regulator Staatsolie launched the 2020/21 shallow-water offshore bid round in November last year. In late June 2021 Staatsolie awarded three shallow-water offshore blocks; Block 5 went to U.S. energy supermajor Chevron while Blocks 6 and 8 were awarded to a consortium composed of TotalEnergies (40%), Staatsolie (40%), and Qatar Petroleum (20%).

Source: Staatsolie.

Suriname’s shallow-water blocks are to the south of Block 58 and contain similar geology to the deep-water blocks where discoveries have been made. This along with the blocks being underexplored and hydrocarbons being found during drilling in the 1980s points to their being the potential for crude oil discoveries. 

Paramaribo is determined to become a major regional oil producer with it predicted that offshore Suriname holding at least 1.9 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources for the discoveries made to date. Blocks 58 and 52 are expected to commence production sometime this decade with industry consultancy Rystad Energy anticipating that Suriname will be pumping around 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day by 2030. Staatsolie has a 20% participation right under the production sharing agreements signed with Apache, TotalEnergies, Exxon, and Petronas. A favorable regulatory environment including low royalties, competitive breakeven prices, and increased political stability all make Suriname an attractive destination for foreign energy companies. Regardless of the threat of peak oil demand, Suriname is shaping up as the next big oil boom in Latin America.

By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com

Guyana seeks higher royalties, revamped terms for new oil contracts
August 18, 2021



Guyana aims to increase its oil royalties and revamp other contract terms as part of a new profit-sharing agreement (PSA) for future crude and gas projects now in its draft stage, the South American nation’s vice president said on Tuesday.

The tiny country has become one of the most desired oil exploration hot spots after an Exxon Mobil-led group (XOM.N), including U.S.-based Hess Corp (HES.N) and China’s CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK), discovered about 9 billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas off its coast.

Guyana expects this year to install an energy regulatory body and it will this month disclose the winner of a one-year contract to market of oil production from the prolific Stabroek block.

The new PSA will be tougher than that negotiated with the Exxon consortium and could be ready “within six months or so,” said Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on the sidelines of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

The government has been at odds with Exxon over flaring at its Liza project, the first one producing crude in Guyana after discoveries.

“We have made it clear that in any new PSA we negotiate for those blocks, the conditions will be very, very different than the ones from the Stabroek block,” Jagdeo said, including higher royalties and mechanisms for deducting costs from investment.

Previous Guyanese governments have been criticized for the lucrative terms provided to companies involved in the Stabroek block.

“All the deficiencies of this contract will be addressed,” he said.

The International Energy Agency, a group of oil-consuming nations, this spring said if governments wanted to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, there would be no need for new fossil fuel developments. A United Nation panel last month also said burning fossil fuels causes climate warming.

MUST READ Loophole allows US $Bs to be withheld from Guyana to pay oil costs — Sanzillo


“We have been called to leave our oil in the ground,” he said. “We’ll develop our oil industry putting in place regulations for safe, low carbon operations.”

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Exxon Bets Another $10 Billion On Guyana’s Oil Boom

Editor OilPrice.com
Tue, April 12, 2022

The deeply impoverished South American microstate of Guyana, which was rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, finds itself at the epicenter of the continent's latest mega-oil boom.

 Since 2015, ExxonMobil, which has a 45% stake and is the operator, along with its partners Hess and CNOOC which own 30% and 25% respectively, has made a swathe of high-quality oil discoveries in Guyana’s offshore 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block. Exxon, which is the operator of the Stabroek Block, has made over 20 discoveries, 6 of those in 2021 alone, which the global energy supermajor estimates to hold at least 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources. The most recent crude oil discoveries, announced in January 2022, were at the Fangtooth-1 and Lau Lau-1 exploration wells. Those finds will boost the Stabroek Block’s oil potential adding to the 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources already estimated by Exxon.

The integrated energy supermajor is investing heavily in the Stabroek Block, which will be a game-changer for the company. Exxon’s first operational field in the Stabroek Block Liza Phase-1 achieved a nameplate capacity of 120,000 barrels per day during December 2020. The next notable development for the Exxon-led consortium and a deeply impoverished Guyana is that the Liza Phase-2 development pumped first oil in February 2022. That operation is expected to reach a nameplate capacity of 220,000 barrels daily before the end of 20220, lifting the Stabroek Block’s output to around 340,000 barrels per day. In September 2020 Exxon gave the green light for the Payara oilfield project. This $9 billion development is the supermajor’s third project in the Stabroek Block, and it is anticipated that Payara will start production during 2024, with the asset expected to reach a capacity of 220,000 barrels per day before the end of that year.

Earlier this month, Exxon made the final investment decision on the Yellow Tail offshore development choosing to proceed and invest $10 billion in the project. This was announced on the back of Guyana’s national government, in Georgetown, approving the project and signing a petroleum production license for Yellow Tail with the Exxon-led consortium. This will be the integrated energy supermajor’s largest project to be developed to date in offshore Guyana. It is anticipated that Yellow Tail will commence production in 2025 reaching a nameplate production capacity of 250,000 barrels per day before the end of that year. That will lift overall petroleum output from the Stabroek Block to at least 810,000 barrels per day. Exxon envisages that the Stabroek Block will be pumping over 1 million barrels per day by 2026 when the Uaru project, which has yet to be approved, comes online.

Exxon Guyana Oil Production


Source: Exxon 2022 Investor Day Presentation.


As a result of Exxon’s investment, Guyana will become a major player in global energy markets and a top 20 producer with the former British colony pumping an estimated 1.2 million barrels daily by 2026, two years earlier than originally predicted.

It isn’t only the Exxon-led consortium in the Stabroek Block which is enjoying drilling success in offshore Guyana. In late-January 2022 Canadian driller CGX Energy and its partner, the company’s majority shareholder, Frontera Energy discovered oil with the Kawa-1 exploration well in the 3-million-acre Corentyne Block in offshore Guyana. The block, where CGX is the operator and its parent company Frontera owns a 33.33% working interest, is contiguous to the prolific Stabroek Block lying to its south-southwest. The Kawa-1 well is in the northern tip of the Corentyne Block, close to the discoveries made by Exxon in the Stabroek Block.



Source: Frontera Energy Corporate Presentation March 2022.

CGX and Frontera intend to invest $130 million in exploring the Corentyne Block. That includes spudding the Wei-1 exploration well in the northwestern part of Corentyne during the second half of 2022. According to CGX, the geology of the Kawa-1 well is similar to discoveries made in the Stabroek Block as well as the 5 significant finds made by TotalEnergies and Apache in neighboring Block 58 offshore Suriname. It is believed that the northern segment of the Corentyne Block lies on the same petroleum fairway that runs through the Stabroek Block into Suriname’s Block 58.

Related: Tight Oil Markets Are Sending Fuel Margins Through The Roof

These events point to offshore Guyana’s considerable hydrocarbon potential, supporting industry claims that the United States Geological Survey grossly miscalculated the undiscovered oil potential of the Guyana Suriname Basin. The USGS, which committed to revisiting its two-decade-old appraisal during 2020, only for that to be prevented by the COVID-19 pandemic, estimated 2 decades ago that the Guyana Suriname basin had to mean undiscovered oil resources of 15 billion barrels. To date, Exxon has disclosed that it estimates to have found at least 10 billion barrels of crude oil in the Stabroek Block. This number can increase because of the latest discoveries in the block and ongoing development activities. Then there are TotalEnergies and Apache’s crude oil discoveries in Block 58 offshore Suriname where the flow-tested Sapakara South appraisal well has tapped a reservoir estimated to hold oil resources of over 400 million barrels. In 2020 U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley estimated that Block 58 could possess oil resources of up to 6.5 billion barrels.

The low costs associated with operating in Guyana, reflected by projected industry-low breakeven prices of $25 to $35 per barrel, and a favorable regulatory environment make it an extremely attractive jurisdiction for foreign energy companies. That appeal is enhanced by the crude oil discovered being relatively light and low in sulfur, making it particularly attractive in a global energy market where demand for low-carbon intensity and reduced emission fuels is rapidly growing. For those reasons investment from foreign energy companies and hence exploration as well as development activities in offshore Guyana are accelerating.

Aside from Frontera allocating up to $130 million to be invested in exploration activity in the Corentyne Block, Spanish energy major, Repsol, plans to ramp up activity in the nearby Kanuku Block in offshore Guyana. The company has contracted Noble to spud the Beebei-Potaro well in the block during May 2022. The Kanuku Block, where Repsol is the operator and holds a 37.5% interest with partners Tullow and TotalEnergies owning 37.5% and 25% respectively, is located south of, and contiguous to, the prolific Stabroek Block. That places it close to Exxon’s Stabroek discoveries, notably the Hammerhead, Pluma, Turbot, and Longtail wells, indicating that the northern part of the Kanuku Block potentially contains the petroleum fairway that runs through the Stabroek and northern part of the Corentyne Block into offshore Suriname Block 58.

Recent oil discoveries combined with rising interest as well as investment from foreign energy investment coupled with the speed with which Exxon is developing the Stabroek Block could see Guyana pumping well over 1 million barrels per day earlier than expected. Some industry analysts speculate that volume could be reached by 2025 which is supported by statements from the CEO of Hess, Exxon’s 30% partner in the Stabroek Block, John Hess. These latest developments in offshore Guyana couldn’t come at a more crucial time with the U.S. looking to bolster crude oil supplies in the wake of Washington banning Russian energy imports. If Guyana can rapidly grow low-carbon intensity offshore oil production as predicted, the deeply impoverished South American microstate will become an important supplier of crude oil, especially for the U.S. This will also deliver a significant economic windfall for Guyana, which has already seen its gross domestic product expanded by a stunning 20.4% during 2021 when crude oil production was only averaging 120,000 to 130,000 barrels per day.

Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com

I WAS INVOLVED WITH A GUYANESE LEFT WING STUDY GROUP IN EDMONTON WHICH ALSO STUDIED THE COLONIAL AND ANTI IMPERIALIST STRUGGLES IN THE CARIBBEAN THIS WAS DURING THE FALL OF GRENADA 

Friday, June 02, 2023

 

Exxon Is Ramping Up Activity In Offshore Guyana As The Economy Soars

  • Guyana now the world’s fastest growing economy.

  • Exxon and partners have three further projects underway in the Stabroek Block with the $12.7 billion Uaru development the latest to be approved.

  • Guyana’s oil revenues are being invested in a flurry of infrastructure projects including highways, a deep-water port and a natural gas to energy project

With more than 35 oil discoveries since 2015 the impoverished South American microstate of Guyana has emerged as the world’s hottest frontier drilling location. Global energy supermajor ExxonMobil is leading the charge by exploiting the prolific offshore Stabroek Block where it has discovered over 11 billion barrels of oil resources. Guyana is on-track to become a leading South American oil producer and exporter with production tipped to exceed 1.2 million barrels per day by 2027, making it the world’s 16th largest petroleum producer. This is delivering a tremendous economic bonanza for Georgetown with Guyana now the world’s fastest growing economy. There are fears, however, that Guyana lacks the requisite governance frameworks to effectively manage the massive windfall generated by oil. This leaves the former British colony at risk of being afflicted by the oil curse that left neighboring Venezuela in political and economic chaos.

Exxon’s 2015 Liza-1 well in the 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block, where it is the operator with a 45% working interest with Hess and CNOOC holding 30% and 25% respectively, was the first significant oil discovery in offshore Guyana. Since then, Exxon has reported over 30 discoveries in the block and by April 2023 was pumping nearly 400,000 barrels per day from the Liza oilfield with two floating production storage and offloading vessels. Exxon and partners have three further projects underway in the Stabroek Block with the $12.7 billion 250,000 barrel per day Uaru development the latest to be approved. Exxon plans to start the Payara project during the fourth quarter 2023, with commissioning activities currently underway, which will be the third major offshore development. Payara will have capacity of 220,000 barrels per day, which once achieved will boost Guyana’s total petroleum output to over 600,000 barrels per day giving Georgetown’s oil revenues a healthy boost. Those operations along with the yet to be approved Whiptail project will lift Guyana’s oil output to 1.2 million barrels per day by 2027.

Exxon is also proceeding with a relentless drilling campaign in Guyana. During late-April 2023 the supermajor announced a discovery in the Stabroek Block with the Lancetfish-1 well which intersected with 92 feet of oil-bearing sandstone. Nonetheless, the Kokwari-1 wildcat well drilled in the northwest section of the Stabroek Block 37 miles from the Liza-1 well came up dry. Exxon also spudded the Basher-1 and Blackfin-1 exploratory wells during the first quarter 2023. Those form part of a 10 well exploration campaign in the Stabroek Block. During March 2023, Exxon filed an Environmental Impact Assessment with Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency outlining a 35 well drilling plan for the Stabroek Block. Previous drilling successes make likely that Exxon will report further oil discoveries over the course of 2023 which will boost the volume of recoverable oil resources in the Stabroek Block, which were previously estimated to exceed 11 billion barrels. 

Exxon’s oil operations in the Stabroek Block are delivering a tremendous economic and fiscal windfall for Georgetown. The impoverished South America microstate with a population of over 800,000 emerged during 2020 as the world’s fastest growing economy reporting that gross domestic product expanded by a whopping 43.5% that year. Since then, Guyana’s economy has expanded at a stunning rate. For 2021, GDP grew by 20% and then a whopping 62% during 2022 with it predicted the economy will expand by a notable 37% in 2023, making it the fastest growing economy of any sovereign state. Guyana is benefiting from a substantial financial windfall from the massive offshore oil boom despite the disadvantageous contract with the Exxon led consortium which leaves the country exposed to financial and environmental risks. According to Guyana’s central bank, the South American microstate received $53.3 million in royalties and $143.3 million of profits from oil during April 2023. At the end of April 2023, Guyana’s natural resource fund had a balance of $1.67 billion. For 2023, Guyana’s finance minister expects oil income to rise by a notable 31% year over year to $1.63 billion. Those sums will continue to grow as oil production expands and Exxon brings additional FPSOs online.

The tremendous revenue from oil flowing into Guyana is being invested in a flurry of infrastructure projects including highways, a deep-water port and a $1.9 billion natural gas to energy project. The deep-water port under construction in Eastern Guyana at the town of Berbice is a key piece of urgently needed energy industry infrastructure.

The port is being constructed by CGX Energy, a 78% owned subsidiary of Canadian intermediate oil producer Frontera Energy. On completion in late-2023 the port will significantly expand Guyana’s cargo capacity, including for oil, with the country’s two existing petroleum shipment facilities already operating at capacity with no room for expansion. The port also has the potential to service neighboring Suriname, which is undergoing its own nascent oil boom with it speculated that the impoverished former Dutch colony possess considerable offshore oil potential on par with Guyana.

Guyana is among the poorest countries in South America with swathes of the population living in poverty without access to basic public goods such as clean running water and electricity. Petroleum is delivering an economic bonanza which will lift Guyana out of poverty and see it become South America’s wealthiest country, a mantle once held by Venezuela. There are fears this vast oil wealth will spark the endemic corruption as well as economic and political dysfunction which caused Venezuela to virtually implode. In less than two decades, Venezuela’s economy, weighed down by a dictatorial socialist regime that fostered corruption, political chaos and malfeasance, collapsed. Indeed, there was a time when President Hugo Chavez believed the considerable revenue generated by Venezuela’s vast oil wealth would never end. Yet by 2015 Venezuela’s economy was in ruins weighed down by sharply weaker oil prices and a failing oil industry. Whether this will occur in Guyana is yet to be seen, but there are fears already rampant corruption and existing political instability could create ideal conditions for the oil curse to claim another victim. 

By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

A Guyanese case study on oil

Syed Rashid Husain 
March 18, 2024 


Guyana is the newest kid on the global energy bloc. The country’s growing oil assets, regarded by some as the find of the decade, are increasingly under the spotlight, giving rise to a new tug of war. As is always the case, attempts to grab the assets are on, both at the geopolitical and corporate levels.

Guyana’s offshore oil sector is booming, with over 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources discovered so far. Production is expected to reach roughly 620,000 barrels per day (bpd) once its Payara field reaches maximum capacity, and it could exceed 1.2 million bpd by 2028.

So far, 30 discoveries have been made, and many more are expected. With production anticipated to begin in Yellowtail in 2025 and Uaru in 2026, the country’s output could touch the 8m barrels equivalent per day, according to recent Standard & Poor’s Global estimates. However, the emerging resources are not without a curse.

Neighbouring Venezuela, boasting a large army with 337,000 personnel, is asserting ownership of the resource-rich Essequibo region of Guyana. Once supermajor Exxon made a swathe of high-quality oil discoveries in the waters off the Essequibo region, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s sabre-rattling intensified.

Energy-deficient Pakistan could learn from Guyana in successfully exploiting its energy assets via active global player participation

Venezuela is now claiming its rights to a 61,000 square mile area of Guyana, comprising roughly two-thirds of the sovereign territory. A heated debate between the two countries has begun. Caracas is accusing Georgetown of awarding Exxon illegal drilling licenses. It says Guyana has no right to award such licenses. Venezuela has also objected to Exxon’s drilling campaign, claiming the supermajor was engaging in corrupt conduct with key opposition figure, Maria Corina Machado, to move ahead on the project.

Matthew Smith reported in his piece in Oilprice.com, “Recent evidence suggests heightened military activity along Guyana’s border, raising fears of a potential invasion. By the end of 2023, there were fears Venezuela would use its military to annex the contested region.” To many, this is reminiscent of the invasion of Kuwait by the forces of Saddam Hussain in 1990.

Later, however, the presidents of Venezuela and Guyana agreed to resolve the dispute peacefully. Yet despite the agreement, “evidence of heightened Venezuelan military activity along Guyana’s border has [re]emerged, sparking fears Caracas is preparing to seize the [resource-rich] Essequibo by force.”

In the meantime, a corporate battle is also ongoing. Currently, Exxon controls all production in Guyana, holding a 45 per cent share in a consortium that includes the Hess Corporation and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) as minority partners. Last October, Chevron Corp agreed to acquire Hess Corp for $53bn.

Analysts point out that Chevron’s bid to purchase Hess in October was primarily aimed at securing its 30pc stake in the Stabroek block off the coast of Guyana, currently one of the world’s fastest-growing oil developments and the biggest crude discovery in a decade.

Exxon is now claiming it has a right to first refusal of any sale of the Stabroek block off the coast of Guyana, containing at least 11bn barrels of oil. Late in February, ExxonMobil said it may pre-empt Chevron Corp’s acquisition of a 30pc stake in the giant Guyanese oil block. Many say the possible move by Exxon to pre-empt the Chevron-Hess deal could result in the breakup of Chevron’s $53bn deal to buy into the field.

Chevron stands adamant there’s “no possible scenario” where Exxon or CNOOC could buy the stake, adding that it remains fully committed to the Hess deal. Exxon and CNOOC’s right of first refusal is “not applicable” to its merger with Hess, Chevron said in an emailed statement sent to the media. “As described in the S-4, there is no possible scenario in which Exxon or CNOOC could acquire Hess’ interest in Guyana as a result of the Chevron-Hess transaction.”

However, Exxon is insisting that it has a duty to its shareholders to explore the right of first refusal over the change of ownership of the Hess stake.

In recent months, oil majors have struck a flurry of mega-deals to secure stakes in proven reserves without building new projects that would increase global supplies. Capitalising upon the sentiment, Guyana has been trying to attract more large oil producers to dilute Exxon’s dominance of the country’s energy output.

It recently held an offshore block auction that drew bids from TotalEnergies, Petronas and Qatar Energy. A battle royale between the oil giants is thus underway in Guyana.

The ongoing corporate dispute over Guyana’s Stabroek Block and the possibility of invasion of Guyana by Venezuela underscores “how important the emerging basin is to global crude markets”, Bloomberg underlined in a piece.

The evolving battleground of Guyana once again underlines oil and geopolitics are virtually inseparable.

For energy-deficient countries like Pakistan, Guyana presents a case study. The country has been successful in exploiting its energy assets through the active participation of global oil majors. Such projects require considerable investments and technological knowhow — oil majors’ posses both.

However, for oil majors to get involved in any such projects, political and economic stability in host countries remains a must. Consistency in policies is required and on a long-term basis.

Pakistan is not meeting these prerequisites. Despite having the potential, it has been unable to exploit and grow its domestic energy asset base in recent decades. To some, it has been a lost decade in many senses.

Oil majors and multinationals are slowly opting out of Pakistan. To achieve a semblance of success in the energy sector, we need to reverse this trend. Pakistan, and especially the Ministry of Petroleum, has a lot to relearn.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, March 18th, 2024Follow Dawn Business on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and across the world.

Thursday, October 01, 2020





Exxon's role in Guyana deepens as the government approves a massive $9 billion oil-drilling project

Benji Jones Business Insider•October 1, 2020
Ships carrying supplies for an offshore oil platform in Guyana operated by Exxon
Luc Cohen/Reuters

The small South American country of Guyana is home to immense offshore oil reserves that Exxon is planning to extract.

The company already has two drilling projects, and on Wednesday the government approved a third, further cementing the oil giant's role in the country's economic future.

Exxon, the largest oil company in the West, strengthened its grip on Guyana's oil riches on Wednesday as it received government approval for a third oil-drilling project, set to produce crude by 2024.

The small South American country is a critical piece of the oil giant's future as it looks to extract oil cheaply. On Thursday, the price of crude was down about 38% relative to the start of the year, following a historic price collapse this past spring wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

The new development, known as Payara, is Exxon's third offshore drilling project in Guyana, a country set to transform into an oil powerhouse over the coming decades. The company estimates that the Stabroek block — where it operates through a partnership with Hess Corp and China's CNOOC — is home to more than 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Exxon plans to invest $9 billion into Payara. One Exxon oil-drilling project in Guyana, known as Liza Phase 1, is currently producing oil, and another (Liza Phase 2) is on track to pump crude by early 2022, the company said.


Reuters

Exxon's controversial role in Guyana

Since Exxon first discovered oil in Guyana, back in 2015, the company's presence has faced controversy and political turmoil.

In February, the global advocacy group Global Witness published a detailed report that alleged Exxon is taking advantage of the small country by striking an inequitable profit-sharing deal under suspect circumstances.

Then this summer, after a months-long vote recount, a new government stepped in that had criticized the Exxon deal as too generous, according to Reuters. Guyana's new president, Irfaan Ali, promised that there'd be a comprehensive review of Exxon's latest project — Payara.

On Wednesday, the government approved the project, an Exxon representative confirmed.

"ExxonMobil is committed to building on the capabilities from our Liza Phase 1 and 2 offshore oil developments as we sanction the Payara field and responsibly develop Guyana's natural resources," Liam Mallon, president of Exxon upstream oil and gas, said in a statement Wednesday. "We continue to prioritize high-potential prospects in close proximity to discoveries and maximize value for our partners, which includes the people of Guyana."

The approval comes after Exxon reported steep financial losses and deployed various tactics to cut costs in response to the oil-price downturn.

As Business Insider previously reported, Exxon is weighing job cuts in high-cost regions. On Wednesday, the company said it was growing its Guyanese workforce with the Payara investment.

Tuesday, August 01, 2023

Brazil And Guyana Are Fueling Latin America's Oil Resurgence

By Matthew Smith - Jul 27, 2023

Brazil, with 14.9 billion barrels of proven reserves, is aiming to boost oil output to 5.4 million barrels per day by 2029, potentially becoming the world's fourth-largest oil producer.

Guyana, following a series of discoveries by Exxon since 2015, is becoming an increasingly important player in the global oil sector, currently producing around 400,000 barrels per day.

Latin America's oil sector, led by Brazil and Guyana, is projected to expand significantly over the next decade.


The near collapse of Venezuela’s once colossal oil industry under the weight of endemic corruption‚ and strict U.S. sanctions, along with Mexico’s sputtering mature oil fields, saw Latin America’s economically crucial hydrocarbon sector fall into decline. By 2020, Venezuela’s oil output had crashed to an all-time annual low of 569,000 barrels per day, while Mexico’s sputtering aging oilfields pumped less than 1.7 million barrels daily. Then a series of world-class offshore discoveries in Brazil’s territorial waters captured the attention of energy supermajors and put Latin America back on the world hydrocarbon map. That was followed by Exxon’s world-class offshore discoveries in Guyana, which put the tiny South American on track to become a leading global petroleum producer and exporter. These events see Latin America poised once again to become a global hydrocarbon powerhouse once again.

Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras made the first offshore deepwater pre-salt oil discovery in the Santos Basin in 2006, with the first oil being pumped a mere two years later. Those vast pre-salt reservoirs continue to deliver major world-class discoveries which have endowed Brazil, according to data from the regulator, the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, with 14.9 billion barrels of proven or 1P reserves. This now sees Brazil holding the second largest oil reserves in Latin America after Venezuela and ranked 16th globally. Those impressive oil reserves, along with ongoing discoveries, are sustaining Brazil’s epic offshore petroleum boom. There are clear indications Brazil’s hydrocarbon reserves and production will continue to expand.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy is targeting significant production growth. The ministry is doing this by implementing strategies to develop existing basins and lift output to 5.4 million barrels per day by 2029. If that ambitious target is achieved, it will make Brazil the world’s fourth-largest oil producer. For May 2023, Brazil pumped an average of 3.2 million barrels per day, which was an impressive 11% greater than the equivalent period a year earlier. Total hydrocarbon output was 4.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day for May 2023, a notable 9% higher year over year. While Brazil’s hydrocarbon production is growing at a steady clip, there is still a significant way to go before the country is lifting more than 5 million barrels per day with 80% flowing from the pre-salt layer.

It will take a considerable investment in developing Brazil’s offshore hydrocarbon basins to lift production to the targeted volume. Petrobras, as part of its 2023 to 2027 strategic plan, has allocated $64 billion to developing exploration and production assets, with 67% of that amount to be invested in pre-salt operations. By 2027, Petrobras envisages lifting 2.5 million barrels of oil per day and another 600,000 barrels of natural gas, seeing the company pump 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, with 78% being sourced from pre-salt fields.

Brazil’s booming oil production is an important economic driver for Brazil. By 2012 Petrobras had become a key government policy tool seeing it emerge as the world’s most indebted oil company with the administration of President Dilma Rousseff looting its coffers to fund social programs and other policy initiatives. After a massive corruption scandal involving Petrobras and construction firm Odebrecht rippled through Brazil, eventually claiming Rousseff’s scalp, Petrobras was set on a more independent pro-business footing by her successor Michel Temer with that approach continued by his successor Jair Bolsonaro. There are fears that the return of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, to the presidency, will lead to further heavy-handed government intervention.

It isn’t only Brazil which has brought the spotlight back on Latin America’s oil industry. Neighboring Guyana is following in the footsteps of Latin America’s largest oil producer after global energy supermajor Exxon discovered oil in the former British colony’s territorial waters in 2015. Since that discovery in the Stabroek Block, Guyana has emerged as what is being called the world’s hottest offshore frontier oil play. More than 35 discoveries have endowed the impoverished country of around 800,000 people with over 11 billion barrels of oil. The Exxon led consortium’s accelerated development of the Stabroek Block, with it taking four years to go from the first discovery to first oil, sees Guyana pumping around 400,000 barrels per day.

Georgetown plans to auction 14 blocks during 2023, although for the third time, it has been delayed until mid-August 2023 so the government can finalize changes to the regulatory framework. Those reforms include introducing a new Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), which will increase the royalty from 2% to 10%, reduce the cost recovery limit from 75% to 65% and introduce a 10% corporate tax. While those terms are less advantageous than those secured by Exxon for the Stabroek Block, they are still competitive compared to other countries in the region.

Guyana’s first-ever oil auction is intended to reduce the country’s dependence on Exxon. It will do this by attracting other petroleum explorers and producers to the South American country’s territorial waters. Given the considerable petroleum potential believed to exist in Guyana’s shallow water and deepwater blocks, further oil discoveries are only a matter of time. Analysts estimate Guyana will be lifting 1.2 million barrels per day by the end of 2027, making the former British colony become a leading global oil exporter. This is delivering a mega economic boom for Guyana, which will have the fastest growing economy during 2023, with gross domestic product forecast by the IMF to expand by 37.2%.

There are signs that Latin America's hydrocarbon sector will expand substantially over the next decade despite heightened geopolitical risk, the clean energy transition and looming peak oil demand. Venezuela’s oil output is growing because of assistance from Iran while U.S. sanctions are being loosened with supermajor Chevron permitted to lift oil in the crisis-riven country. Argentina is undergoing an onshore unconventional hydrocarbon boom as the Vaca Muerta shale body is developed. While those will boost hydrocarbon production in Latin America and the Caribbean, it is Brazil and Guyana which are driving the massive explosion in oil production expected in the region. Those two countries alone will add up to 3 million barrels per day to Latin America and the Caribbean’s oil output, but that will occur at a time when petroleum prices are under pressure from falling global demand due to the clean energy transition. That makes it a race against time for oil producers in the region to exploit their hydrocarbon wealth.

The Oil Eldorado: Guyana's Stabroek Block Surpasses Analyst Expectations


By Matthew Smith - Jul 26, 2023

Oil estimates for the Guyana Suriname Basin, particularly Guyana's Stabroek Block, are being revised upwards, with Exxon's 35 discoveries believed to contain over 11 billion barrels of oil.

Various oil discoveries in both Guyana and Suriname indicate the presence of up to 32 billion barrels of oil resources in the basin, a number that is likely to grow as exploration and development operations escalate.

The surge in oil resources is attracting foreign energy companies and investment, fueling what is projected to become South America's largest oil boom and promising significant economic benefits for Guyana and Suriname.


Tiny South American country Guyana, which has a population of less than one million, recently emerged as the world’s hottest offshore frontier drilling location. After Exxon’s slew of world-class oil discoveries in the offshore Stabroek Block, the first occurring in 2015, big oil was captivated by the petroleum potential held by the Guyana Suriname Basin. This saw foreign energy companies, including Malaysia’s Petronas, France’s TotalEnergies and U.S.-based Chevron in recent years acquire interests in a range of blocks in offshore Guyana and Suriname. Both impoverished former colonies possess the petroleum potential to become major oil producers and exporters, with Guyana well ahead of Suriname when it comes to developing its considerable oil resources. There are clear signs that the Guyana Suriname Basin contains significantly more petroleum than originally estimated.

It is becoming increasingly evident that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) grossly underestimated the volume of oil contained in the Guyana Suriname Basin. In a May 2001 assessment of undiscovered conventional oil and gas resources in South America, the USGS determined the Guyana Suriname Basin contained 2.8 billion to 32.6 billion barrels of oil with mean resources of 15.2 billion barrels. At the time, due to the lack of drilling success in the basin, the assessment appeared accurate. Nonetheless, those conservative numbers are now being challenged by Exxon’s 35 discoveries in the Stabroek Block alone, where the supermajor believes it has discovered more than 11 billion barrels of oil.

There has been a slew of other discoveries in Guyana’s territorial waters. The most recent occurred at CGX Energy’s Wei-1 wildcat well in the northern tip of the Corentyne Block, which is contiguous with the Stabroek Block, where 210 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing sands in the Santonian interval was identified. Analysts believe the success of the Wei-1 exploration well, along with CGX’s earlier discovery at the Kawa-1 exploration well roughly nine miles to the southeast of the Wei well, is particularly important for the oil boom occurring in the Guyana Suriname Basin. This indicates the prolific petroleum fairway contained in the Stabroek Block runs through the north of the Corentyne Block and into neighboring Block 58 in offshore Suriname, where TotalEnergies and partner Apache have made five discoveries.

Frontera Energy, CGX’s 68% partner in the Corentyne Block and majority owner, had an independent resource evaluation for its Guyana Blocks conducted during 2021. This evaluation determined the Corentyne Block contains 1.7 billion to 10.7 billion barrels of oil resources with nearly one billion barrels of mean risk oil resources. In a late 2022 report, industry consultancy S&P Global Commodity Insights determined that more than 15 billion barrels of oil have been discovered in Guyana’s territorial waters since Exxon’s first Liza discovery in 2015. That number alone indicates that the USGS substantially underestimated the volume of petroleum contained in the Guyana Suriname Basin.

This becomes more apparent when it is considered that Block 58 offshore Suriname, where 50% partners TotalEnergies and Apache have made five commercial discoveries, is thought to contain up to 6.5 billion barrels of oil resources. Already flow testing at the Sapakara and Krabdagu discoveries in the block has identified there are over 800 million barrels of oil resources in place, with more to be discovered. Based on the numbers for the Stabroek as well as Corentyne Blocks in Guyana’s territorial waters and Block 58 in offshore Suriname, there are easily up to 32 billion barrels, or even more, of oil resources contained in the Guyana Suriname Basin.

That number will only grow as the tempo of exploration and development operations in the basin gain pace. There have been other discoveries in the Guyana Suriname Basin that have yet to be evaluated and determined whether they are exploitable. These include Exxon, along with partner Malaysia’s national oil company Petronas finding oil with the Slonea-1 exploration well in offshore Suriname Block 52 and Apache’s Baja-1 discovery in Block 53. Since 2015, there have also been a series of non-commercial discoveries in Guyana, which despite being deemed unexploitable for assorted reasons, including being water-bearing, further underscore the considerable oil potential contained in the Guyana Suriname Basin.

While TotalEnergies delayed the multi-billion-dollar final investment decision for Block 58, expected in 2022, because of conflicting drilling results and seismic data as well as a high oil-to-gas ratio, Paramaribo is pushing to attract other energy companies. This saw Surname’s government launch a series of oil auctions for the shallow water underexplored Demerara acreage, the latest of which closed at the end of May 2023 with several companies making qualified bids for three of the six blocks offered. In a series of earlier auctions, supermajor Chevron acquired interests in shallow water Block 5 and 7 as well as deepwater Block 42, where the operator Shell, in 2022, drilled the Zanderij-1 wildcat well where a non-commercial oil discovery was made.

Guyana is also focused on attracting further investment in its burgeoning offshore oil boom. Georgetown announced the first-ever petroleum auction in late-2022, which has since been delayed 3 times, now until mid-August 2023, as the government seeks to implement new contractual terms for the country’s production-sharing agreements. That auction sees a total of 14 blocks on offer, comprised of 11 deepwater and three shallow-water blocks, with a view to reducing dependence on the Exxon-led consortium lifting 400,000 barrels per day in the Stabroek Block. According to Reuters, Shell, Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras and Chevron were weighing whether to make bids earlier this year.

At the start of July 2023, it was announced that Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency had approved Exxon’s ambitious drilling campaign in the Stabroek Block, where it plans to drill 35 exploration and appraisal wells. With the prolific petroleum trend in the Stabroek Block yet to be fully explored and the large volume of discoveries already made that have yet to be appraised, there are significant odds of further oil discoveries being made as that campaign progresses. Other companies such as CGX, Repsol and Shell are pushing ahead with their own drilling campaigns in offshore Guyana.

As foreign energy companies and capital pour into Guyana and Suriname, advancing further exploration and development activity, there is every indication that further world-class oil discoveries will be made. That will significantly boost the volume of exploitable oil resources in the basin to levels well above those estimated by the USGS, with the government organization claiming the geological body contains 15.2 billion barrels of mean undiscovered oil resources. Indeed, there is an estimated 16 billion barrels of exploitable oil resources discovered to date in the Guyana Suriname Basin, with various estimates indicating that it contains at least 27 billion barrels of oil resources. This considerable petroleum potential will fuel what is South America’s largest oil boom and deliver a tremendous economic windfall for Guyana and Suriname.

By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com



Offshore Oil Stocks Flying As Investors Bet On A Deep Water Boom


By Alex Kimani - Jul 26, 2023

Offshore drilling companies have seen their share prices jump this year as a result of renewed appetite for offshore drilling and exploration.

One notable trend in the ongoing offshore boom is a large increase in deepwater and ultra-deepwater drilling.

Ultra-deepwater production is set to continue growing at breakneck speed to account for half of all deepwater production by 2030.


Stocks of offshore oil and gas drillers and producers have gone on a tear after recent contracts broke records, reversing their seven-year downturn that reached its nadir during the Covid-19 pandemic. Rising global petroleum demand, coupled with increasing deepwater exploration and drilling, has been keeping offshore contractors really busy.

Leading with impressive gains is deepwater drilling specialist, Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG), whose stock has gained 99.1% in the year-to-date. RIG stock jumped nearly 10% over the past week after the company reported a three-year, $518 million contract to deploy one of its drillships in the Gulf of Mexico, the latest in a series of large transactions announced in recent months. The company has revealed that its aggregate incremental backlog associated with the latest contracts totals ~$1.2, bringing its total backlog to $9.2B. Meanwhile, rig rates have shot up to $480,000 a day, a 50%Y/Y increase and about triple the downturn’s lows.

Deepwater Boom


One notable trend in the ongoing offshore boom is a large increase in deepwater and ultra-deepwater drilling. Recently, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the government-owned parent company of PetroChina, and Cnooc (OTCPK: CEOHF), kicked off ultra-deepwater exploratory drilling for oil and gas as the country looks to wean itself of foreign oil. According to Chinese news agency Xinhua Global Service, CNPC will drill a test borehole of up to 11,000 meters (36,089 feet), the country’s deepest ever, which will help it better understand the Earth’s internal structure better, as well as to test underground drilling techniques.Related: Oil Prices Drop As Market Awaits Fed’s Interest Rate Decision

CNPC’s borehole depth is not far from Qatar’s world record of 12,289 meters (40,318 feet) for a petroleum well depth that was drilled in the Al Shaheen Oil Field in 2008 or Russia’s Kola Superdeep well that reached a depth of 12,262 meters (40,230 feet).

In the oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) industry, deepwater is defined as water depth greater than 1,000 feet while ultra-deepwater is defined as depths greater than 5,000 feet.

But China is not the only country willing to drill to ridiculous depths in the pursuit of energy security.

Deepwater oil and gas production is set to increase by 60% by 2030, to contribute 8% of overall upstream production, according to a new report from Wood Mackenzie, as cited by Rig Zone.

Ultra-deepwater production is set to continue growing at breakneck speed to account for half of all deepwater production by 2030.

Deepwater production remains the fastest-growing upstream oil and gas segment with production expected to hit 10.4 million boe/d in 2022 from just 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in 1990. Wood Mackenzie has predicted that by the end of the decade, that figure will pass 17 million boe/d.

Norway's Aker BP (NYSE:BP) (OTCQX:AKRBF) is the latest oil major to make an ultra-deepwater discovery. At a total depth of 8,168 m, Aker BP says the well is the longest exploration well drilled in offshore Norway. The much bigger-than-expected oil discovery was made in the Yggdrasil area of the North Sea.

Preliminary estimates indicate a gross recoverable volume of 40 million-90 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), much higher than the company’s earlier projection of between 18 million and 45 million boe. The discovery will significantly enhance the company’s resource base for the Yggdrasil development, which previously was estimated at 650M gross boe.The oil discovery is located within production licenses 873 and 442: In license 873, with Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) and PGNiG Upstream Norway as partners. The plan for development and operations (PDO) for this project was submitted to Norwegian authorities in December 2022, with production scheduled to start in 2027.

Two years ago, U.S. oil and gas major Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) made a big deepwater oil and gas find. Exxon announced that it had made two more discoveries at the Sailfin-1 and Yarrow-1 wells in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana, bringing discoveries on the block to more than 30 since 2015. Exxon revealed that the Sailfin-1 well was drilled in 4,616 feet of water and encountered 312 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone, while the Yarrow-1 well was drilled in 3,560 feet of water and encountered 75 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone.

Exxon did not disclose how much crude oil or gas it estimates the new discoveries to contain, but hiked a previous output forecast for the third quarter from older discoveries in the region.

The supermajor has boosted development and production offshore Guyana at a pace that "far exceeds the industry average”. Exxon’s two sanctioned offshore Guyana projects, Liza Phase 1 and Liza Phase 2, are now producing above design capacity and have already achieved an average of nearly 360K bbl/day of oil. The supermajor expects total production from Guyana to cross a million barrels per day by the end of this decade.

Exxon said a third project, Payara, is expected to launch by year-end 2023 while a fourth project, Yellowtail, could kick off operations in 2025.

Exxon is the operator of the Stabroek block where it holds a 45% interest while partners Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) and Cnooc hold a 30% and 25% interest, respectively. Exxon’s oil and gas production are well below record levels, averaging 3.7M boe/day, nearly 9% below 4.1M boe/day set in 2016.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com