…gov’t promises continued vigilance, strengthening of capacity

DAYS after announcing ‘first oil’, ExxonMobil and its partners have discovered more oil offshore Guyana with another strike at the Mako-One well in the Stabroek Block. This latest find brings the total number of discoveries to 15 for the company and adding to the estimated recoverable resource of more than six billion oil-equivalent barrels in the block.

In a release on Monday from the Department of Energy (DoE) Director, Dr. Mark Bynoe, stated that the well is located southeast of the Liza field which began commercial production of oil on Friday. It encountered approximately 164 feet (50 metres) of a high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir in the well drilled in 5,315 feet (1,620 metres) of water. “This discovery by ExxonMobil and its partners comes on the heels of the start of oil production. The Cooperative Republic of Guyana is experiencing a truly-historic moment that has all the ingredients to facilitate a paradigm shift towards sustained economic transformation.” Dr. Bynoe said. The energy director explained in the release that this newest geological discovery will have to undergo further appraisal to determine its commercial value and the resource base.

Meanwhile, Senior Vice-President of Exploration and New Ventures at ExxonMobil, Mike Cousins, said in a separate release, “New discoveries in this world-class basin have the potential to support additional development…our proprietary full-wave seismic inversion technology continues to help us better define our discovered resource and move rapidly to the development phase.”

Guyana achieved ‘first oil’ in the Liza Phase One development on December 20, 2019 and is set to produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day utilising the Liza Destiny Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel. The Liza Unity FPSO, which is under construction for production start-up by mid-2022, will be employed for the Liza Phase Two development and will have a production capacity of 220,000 barrels of oil.

Exxon has stated that pending government approvals and project sanctioning of a third development, production from the Payara field north of the Liza discoveries could start as early as 2023, reaching an estimated 220,000 barrels of oil per day. ExxonMobil’s previous discovery was at the Tripletail-One well which encountered approximately 33 metres of high-quality oil bearing sandstone reservoir.

Upon completion of operations at Tripletail, the Noble Tom Madden drillship had plans to drill the Uaru-One well, located approximately six miles east of the Liza field and the Hassa-One. The Mako-One well was drilled by the Noble Don Taylor and the three explorations were labelled as “near term” and fall with Exxon’s short-term drilling outlook.
Added to this, earlier in December, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, applied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the authorisation to explore 31 wells in three oil blocks offshore Guyana. The project includes a 25-well exploration programme in the Stabroek Block, a three-well exploration programme in Kaieteur Block and a three-well exploration programme in the Canje Block.
“The Government of the Cooperative Republic Guyana will continue to conscientiously and assiduously ensure that petroleum revenues benefit all Guyanese through the ‘Decade of Development’ 2020-2029. The Department of Energy will continue to be at the vanguard of this effort through, inter alia, strengthening its capacity and building out the legislative framework to allow for effective and efficient management of Guyana’s hydrocarbon resources and enhanced value retention,” Dr. Bynoe said.

EEPGL is operator and holds 45 per cent interest in the Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30 per cent interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds 25 per cent interest.