EXXONMOBIL Corporation, on Tuesday, announced that it was assessing worldwide job cuts due to the coronavirus pandemic which has slashed fuel demand. The company recently announced voluntary layoffs in Australia, as a means of cost cutting.

Reaching out to the company on Friday, the Guyana Chronicle was made aware that operations offshore Guyana remains unaffected. Corporate Media Relations Manager of Public and Government Affairs, Casey Norton, provided a statement from the company.

It outlined: “We have study work underway on a country-by-country basis to assess possible additional efficiencies to right-size our business and make it stronger for the future. It would be premature to draw conclusions for other countries based on what we announced for Australia. Guyana remains an integral part of our investment plans. Current operations at Liza are unaffected and the second phase of development remains on target for 2022.”

According to Reuters, the company has slashed capital spending by 30 per cent this year and warned of deeper cuts in 2021. July marked the first back-to-back quarterly losses for ExxonMobil in at least 36 years.

However, production offshore Guyana is progressing with ExxonMobil, tentatively, hoping to meet its full capacity of producing 120,000 barrels of oil per day by this month, as final commission to its gas compressor system is ongoing.

President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, recently told the media that there were four drill ships in operation, two of which are drilling development wells for Liza Phase 1 and 2.

Meanwhile, two rigs are also operating at exploration well Redtail in the Stabroek Block and the Tanager well in the Kaieteur Block.

“It will be a little while before we have results to announce, but looking forward to that, and, hopefully, some more good news to add to the history that we’ve had,” Routledge said.

There are now plans for a fifth rig to join the operations later in the year to give the company the capacity it needs to support its planned pace of development, even amid the pandemic.

Pipes are being laid on the sea bed to facilitate the Liza Phase 2 Development which will ultimately be connected to the new Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO), the Liza Unity, under construction by SBM Offshore.

The Liza Unity FPSO will be the largest capacity FPSO the company has ever delivered and its first to be built under its Fast4Ward® programme. The vessel will be designed to have associated gas treatment capacity of 400 million cubic feet per day and water injection capacity of 250,000 barrels per day.

“There are a lot of activities offshore, despite the coronavirus challenges,” Routledge said, adding: “We’ve been able to keep the project on course still targeting the 2022 start-up at this point in time.”