–ExxonMobil records $614.6B in profits for 2023

IN its Annual Report for Guyana, ESSO Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), ExxonMobil’s local subsidiary, along with co-venturers in the country’s offshore blocks, recorded G$614.6 billion in profits for 2023.
With growing production, the government lifted approximately 17 million “profits oil” barrels, and when combined with a 41 per cent increase in cash royalty payments, delivered approximately G$338 billion to the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) – a new annual record.
According to its annual report, the oil giant raked in more than $1.1 trillion in revenue in 2023, and generated $752.7 billion in profit, before tax, with its total operating expenditures accounting for $356.1 billion.
In 2022, the company raked in $557,712,491,000 juxtaposed with $614,599,677,509 last year.

According to the company’s Vice-President and Business Services Manager, Phi Rietema, there are hundreds of ExxonMobil employees that work day in and day out, creating value for Guyana – which is reflected by another profitable year.
“As you can see in the financial statements it was another profitable year, we increased our profits year over year to around $600 billion. It’s reflective of building on the success of prior years,” Rietema told reporters during an engagement at the company’s Kingston, Georgetown office on Thursday.
“We have been here since 1999, and next week we’ll mark 25 years since we signed the original contract, and this year was just the third year of profits over those 25 years. And as we discussed today, we continue to invest heavily in Guyana.
“ExxonMobil Guyana alone has invested around $3 trillion in the Stabroek Block, with our partners, it is around $6 trillion, and with future projects that are already approved and committed, that would reach $11 trillion, and we are still exploring and looking for additional development opportunities,” Rietema said.

With continued reliable operations and the start-up of the Prosperity, the floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel which is producing oil in ExxonMobil’s third project offshore Guyana, in November 2023, gross production increased 41 per cent and revenues by 26 per cent versus 2022, despite lower oil prices.
With the Prosperity online and a full year of the Liza Unity FPSO, production was higher than in 2022.
“Production was up year over year, and it was profitable production,” Rietema said.

He pointed out that the number represents 45 per cent shares of EEPGL, since CNOOC and Hess, the other co-venturers in the block, have separate financial figures.
“What you see here is just our 45 per cent share. In total, if you look at the financial statements, we have assets of over $3 trillion…we have equity of over $2 trillion. We are financially strong and we’re getting stronger year after year as we continue to invest in profitable projects,” Rietema said.
On the exploration side, he pointed out that ExxonMobil is committed to its contract which runs until 2027, during which it intends to fully explore the prolific Stabroek Block and find all the producible resources.
“We look at specific wells, every time we drill a well, we get more information, and we better understand the block and the resource and then we look at the data that we have, and we look for other opportunities. As I said, we continue to explore and it’s in everyone’s interest that we fully explore and understand the resource so that we can efficiently develop the block,” he added.

Through the end of 2023, the total investment in costs put into the cost bank was around US$30 billion- which ExxonMobil has recovered around US$20 billion.
“It shows we continue to invest more than we’re receiving from the block. We continue to reinvest in, but it will still take some time before we recover those investments.
“When the investments have been totally recovered in the future, then the amount of profit available to share between the Contractor Group and the government will grow considerably. And we can see that day coming in the not-too-distant future,” the Vice President said.
In 2022 alone, Guyana lifted approximately 13 million profit-oil barrels, received approximately 200 per cent increase in royalty payments, and contributed a record G$240 billion to the NRF.
At that stage, the Stabroek Block partners ExxonMobil Guyana, Hess Corp, and CNOOC had been reinvesting essentially all of their profits back into exploration, development and the local economy.