…in first phase of Exxon’s operations

FOLLOWING the release of the lucrative production sharing agreement on Thursday, ExxonMobil Country Director, Rod Henson says Guyana can profit from as much as US$7B over the first phase of its Liza project.

This figure translates to $1.45 trillion Guyana dollars over the course of the 20-year-long, Phase One of the company’s Liza Project offshore Guyana. The projected sums are based on price projects Exxon noted. Following the release of the agreement on Thursday, Exxon provided details of the company’s interest in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana.

Exxon projected that over a five-year period, the country stands to benefit from US$1.5B from the Liza project. Citing the petroleum agreement’s competitive nature as being similar to those the company signed with other countries, Henson told the media during a briefing at the Marriot Hotel on Thursday afternoon that the potential which the country stands to benefit from can “substantially increase the standard of living in Guyana “.
As he compared the 2016 agreement with the initial agreement the company signed in 1999, Henson said that Exxon agreed to a number of higher and new payments, including the US$18M bonus which government placed in a designated account in the Bank of Guyana this year.

He said that a new commitment was the increase in rental fees from US$240,000 annually to US$1M which is payable to the country. In addition, Exxon has committed to paying an annual training fee of US$300,000, a figure which improved from the US$45,000 of the 1999 agreement.

Henson noted that the country receives revenue from “day one” of production in the year 2020. He said that Exxon projects that first oil will be retrieved around March of 2020. Thereafter, it will pump oil at a rate of 100 to 120,000 barrels daily. The Liza -1 discovery in May 2015 was Exxon’s first here; it has since made several other discoveries in the Stabroek block, including Liza Deep, Payara , Snoek and recently , Turbot.

The Stabroek Block, where the Liza project is located, lays 100 miles offshore Guyana. Exxon’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) holds a 45% interest in the Stabroek Block while Hess Guyana Exploration Limited (30%) and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Limited (25%) hold the remaining interest in the block. Exxon received its licence from the former PPP government in 1999 to explore the Stabroek Block, and in 2008 the company initiated oil and gas exploration activities there. Exxon said that gross recoverable resources from the Stabroek Block are estimated at 2.25 to 2.75 billion oil-equivalent barrels . The figure covers all its wells in the Stabroek Block.