EXXONMobil has achieved quite a milestone offshore Guyana, surpassing 500 million barrels of accumulated oil production across three major projects—Liza Phase 1, Liza Phase 2, and Payara—in less than five years. This feat is extraordinary, considering that the ramp-up to current production levels has been achieved safely, and with demonstrable operational excellence, with no major incidents reported since production began in December 2019.

This production has had a transformative economic impact on Guyana. The country has experienced double-digit economic growth, annually, since oil production began, making it the fastest-growing economy in the world. Oil sales and royalties, amounting to more than US$5.5 billion, have been deposited into Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund (NRF), and have supported investments in infrastructure, healthcare, and education.

The new-found fiscal space is empowering the government to make public tertiary education free, advance ‘mega’ energy and transport infrastructure projects, boost the quality of education and healthcare, and transfer money directly into people’s pockets when they need it most.

The oil boom also spurs investment in other sectors. Aside from foreign investment in non-oil sectors, local content lets Guyanese businesses earn hundreds of millions of United States dollars annually, boosting economic diversification potential. Also, nearly 70% of the oil industry’s workforce—over 6,000 individuals—are Guyanese.

These achievements show that ExxonMobil’s ability to refine its processes through the lessons learned from earlier projects is invaluable. Starting with the Liza Destiny floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for the Liza-1 project, the company learned, and then applied improvements, leading to accelerated timelines, and more efficient operations.

For instance, the Payara project, which uses the Prosperity FPSO, achieved background flare in a record 39 days after production began in November 2023. This is a major improvement over the previous Liza Unity FPSO, which took five months to reach its production target. The Prosperity FPSO reached its nameplate production of 220,000 barrels per day (b/d) in January 2024, just two months after start-up, well ahead of the expected five-month timeline.

ExxonMobil and its partners, Hess and CNOOC, have also focused on production optimisation through debottlenecking, which has safely increased output beyond nameplate levels. For instance, the Liza Unity FPSO, originally designed to produce 220,000 b/d, has demonstrated it can sustain production levels of up to 250,000 b/d. Similarly, the Prosperity FPSO has already exceeded its nameplate capacity, producing up to 250,000 b/d. While the Liza Unity took 14 months to reach this optimised milestone, Prosperity only took eight.

A major factor in this success has been the application of SBM Offshore’s Fast4Ward® programme, a ‘design one, build many’ concept that standardises FPSO design and construction. This approach has allowed for safer, more efficient project execution, and faster delivery. The FPSOs used in the Stabroek Block projects have advanced technologies to minimise environmental impacts, such as utilising associated gas to power the vessels, and reinjecting produced gas into reservoirs to enhance oil recovery and reduce emissions. These design features have been instrumental in ensuring that ExxonMobil meets both its production and environmental benchmarks.

The continued development of the Stabroek Block, with committed investments of nearly US$55 billion, will significantly expand production capacity. By the end of 2027, installed production capacity is expected to reach 1.3 million b/d. Upcoming projects, including the Yellowtail and Whiptail developments, will make Guyana a global leader in the upstream space.