Alex Kimani is a veteran finance writer, investor, engineer and researcher for Safehaven.com.
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By Alex Kimani – Nov 14, 2024, 7:00 PM CST
- ExxonMobil announced on Wednesday it has reached 500M barrels of oil produced from Guyana's offshore Stabroek block.
- Exxon will soon start generating natural gas at its Guyana assets.
- Guyana's GDP per capita has seen extraordinary growth since 2020.
U.S. oil and gas giant, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) announced on Wednesday it has reached 500M barrels of oil produced from Guyana's offshore Stabroek block, just five years after it kicked off production at the location. The Exxon-led consortium which includes Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) and China's Cnooc (OTCPK:CEOHF) have set a target to reach production of at least 1.3M bbl/day of oil by year-end 2027, a feat it hopes to achieve when six approved offshore projects come online. According to Exxon, the first three projects–Liza Phase 1, Liza Phase 2 and Payara–are already pumping more than 650K bbl/day.
Data by the Guyana government has revealed that the consortium's agreement generated $6.33B for the partners last year, with Exxon netting $2.9B, Hess earning $1.88B, while Cnooc amassed $1.52B from Stabroek. Exxon Mobil owns 45% of the Stabroek block; Hess 30% while Cnooc owns a 25% stake.
Exxon will soon start generating natural gas at its Guyana assets. Netherlands-based SBM Offshore (OTCPK:SBFFF) (OTCPK:SBFFY) has just completed the $1.23B sale of its fifth floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit to Exxon for use in offshore Guyana. With a production capacity of 250,000 barrels of oil per day, the FPSO Jaguar has a daily associated gas treatment capacity of 540 million cubic feet and a water injection capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. ExxonMobil is progressing with plans to build a Gas to Energy Project in cooperation with the Government of Guyana, with start-up expected by the end of 2024. According to Exxon, the project will significantly reduce the cost of electricity in Guyana. The proposed project would bring associated gas from ExxonMobil Guyana-operated projects offshore (Liza Phase 1 and 2) via pipeline to onshore gas processing facilities. The pipeline would transport up to ~50 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas to the facilities.
Related: Europe's Natural Gas Prices Jump to 2024 High
The three oil majors have completely transformed the economy of the tiny South American country. Whereas, historically, Guyana's GDP per capita was among the lowest in South America, extraordinary economic growth since 2020, averaging 42.3 percent over the last three years, brought GDP per capita to $20,360 in 2023, up from $6,477 in 2019. Guyana is now considered an upper-middle-income country.
Source: OilNOW
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