— President Ali says gov’t remains firm on several issues, but finalisation expected soon

By Navendra Seoraj
TREMENDOUS progress has been made in the discussions surrounding ExxonMobil’s Field Development Plan (FDP) for the Payara project, but President Dr. Irfaan Ali affirmed that the company’s receptiveness to those discussions will not determine the conditions imposed by the Government of Guyana.
“It is not whether Exxon (ExxonMobil) is receptive, it is our conditions and we are pushing forward,” said President Ali while responding to questions from the media on Saturday.

The Payara Project, located in the eastern half of the Stabroek Block, is expected to see the drilling of up to 45 development wells which could take up to five years, with drilling initially pegged to begin in 2020 and initial production by early 2023.

The project marks EEPGL’s third field development in the Stabroek block and targets 180,000 to 220,000 barrels of oil per day, with anticipation to produce approximately 5,700,000 to 6,600,000 barrels of crude oil per month.
A review of the Payara Development Project was previously conducted by the Bayphase Oil and Gas Consultants contracted by the Department of Energy (DoE) under the previous administration.

The new People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration, however, decided to review the work already undertaken by the DoE to ensure that the interests of all Guyanese are protected and are in keeping with international transparency and accountability standards. The current review is being done by a team of international experts headed by Canadian Queen’s Counsel, Alison Redford.

In providing an update on the ongoing discussions, Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, had said ExxonMobil’s legal and technical teams are engaging experts from the Department of Energy (DE) and the Attorney General Chambers for the crafting of a legal agreement which outlines strict guidelines for the company’s offshore operations.

President Ali, in sharing his views on those discussions, said: “We have made tremendous progress…we are strong on a few issues, especially related to the environmental impact; fine for gas flaring; issue of reinjection of water…those are things we are strong on, but they (stakeholders) are making steady progress and very shortly we can have a full assessment.”

REVIEW TO BE MADE PUBLIC
Minister Bharrat had told this publication that when the process is completed, the review will be made public so that a comparison can be done between the review conducted by the international experts and that of Bayphase.

The completion of the process within September should allow for ExxonMobil to meet its development timelines, inclusive of a Final Investment Decision (FID).
President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, has explained that a delay beyond September could lead to a multi-month delay – as much as nine to 12 months – due to the limited installation windows for offshore weather systems.

He acknowledged: “It’s very close to the deadline that we need to achieve in order to keep it on course so we don’t lose traction and have to restart the clock from the point of view of the contractors and installation windows, but I think there’s a will on all sides to make that happen…we’re working through the final details in order to reach alignment on the conditions of the licence for the developer. I would say we are getting close. We haven’t dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ‘t’ but I think that both sides are working incredibly hard to reach that closure so that we can get there.”

ExxonMobil is now firmly established in Guyana, operating an office in Georgetown with numerous ongoing exploration and development operations offshore. ExxonMobil Guyana has made 18 discoveries since May 2015 and began production in December 2019 from the Liza Phase one development project.
The company is the operator of the Stabroek, Canje and Kaieteur Blocks offshore Guyana. Since 2015, ExxonMobil has increased its estimated recoverable resource base in Guyana to more than eight billion oil-equivalent barrels.