United States oil giant ExxonMobil has updated its gross recoverable resource estimate to 5.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent in the Stabroek Block in Guyana.

The announcement came on Wednesday at the company’s 2019 Investor Day by way of webcast and was also included in its 2019 Investor Day report. “The success story that I highlighted last year has continued. We ended up with five new discoveries in the Stabroek Block in 2018. We’ve already had two new discoveries in 2019. We’re still to quantify those last two discoveries but last year I’d said we’d increase our resource to 3.2 billion oil equivalent barrels [and], as you can see from the numbers that are on the chart, we’ve closed to double that in just 12 months,” Senior Vice President at Exxon Mobil Corporation Neil Chapman said.

The report noted that there were 5 new discoveries in 2019 and two in 2019 with the total number of discoveries to date in the south eastern part of the Stabroek Block at 12.
Speaking on the current border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela, Chapman highlighted that none of the discoveries of ExxonMobil thus far are in the area under debate.

“Looking at that block you can see where our discoveries are. They are all in the South-East corner of this block. It has been well noted in the public around the border dispute with Venezuela [but] it’s a long, long way from where our discoveries are and where our activity is and there’s no dispute between the countries,” he said.

The report listed Guyana and Brazil as amongst the most valuable plays in the industry stating, too, that there is a robust inventory of additional prospects in Guyana with significant upside potential. For the 2019-2020 periods, Chapman said ExxonMobil plans to drill approximately 10 additional exploration wells even as it has increased the number of its FPSOs from 3 to 5.

Other updates provided show that at Liza Phase 1, topside modules were installed; integration is ongoing; offshore installation will commence in the second quarter of 2019; Liza Destiny is expected in Guyana in the second quarter of 2019 and start up is expected in the early first quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, regarding Liza Phase 2, Final Investment Decision (FID) is planned for the first quarter of 2019 and it is on schedule for start-up in 2022.

At Payara, early engineering is progressing; environmental permitting was initiated; FID is expected in the fourth quarter of 2019 while start-up is expected in 2023. Guyana’s outlook production for 2025 was increased from 500 to 750 while the report stated that among the five outstanding developments influencing ExxonMobil’s growing value of portfolio is Deepwater Guyana.

Chapman commended the Government of Guyana for its partnership stating that there have been excellent relations thus far. “We’ve had really strong support and a great partnership with the Guyanese government,” he said. “President Granger implemented a new Ministry of Energy last year; Dr. Bynoe is heading that up. It’s a great partnership between the operators, ourselves and the government.”

The company believes that considerable potential remains for Guyana and stated that the more it discovers, the more it is understands Guyana’s about the geology and believes that the prospects are even greater in the basin.