New oil discovery offshore Guyana pushes resource estimate to 10 billion barrels

Last Updated on Thursday, 7 October 2021, 9:37 by Denis Chabrol

ExxonMobil increased its estimate of the discovered recoverable resource for the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana to approximately 10 billion oil-equivalent barrels.

The updated resource estimate includes a new discovery at the Cataback-1 well, which brings the total significant discoveries to more than 20 within the Stabroek Block. The Cataback-1 well encountered 243 feet (74 meters) of net pay in high quality hydrocarbon bearing sandstone reservoirs. It is located approximately 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) east of Turbot-1 and was drilled in 5,928 feet (1,807 meters) of water by the Noble Tom Madden.

“This discovery adds to the resource in the Turbot/Tripletail area, enhancing the development project potential,” said Mike Cousins, senior vice president of exploration and new ventures at ExxonMobil. “Our proprietary technologies, global exploration experience and drilling capabilities continue to yield positive results in the Stabroek Block, which will generate additional value for Guyana.”

President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge said recent discoveries and on-going projects continue to contribute to the advancement of the Guyanese economy. “For us it is very important that the people of Guyana feel the benefit of not just the revenues that are generated from the natural resource but also from the investment activities, the development activities, the work that’s needed to produce the oil and gas. And so, again, you look back and you say we’ve made remarkable progress since 2015; since that first discovery, more than US $500 million have been spent with local companies; more than 800 local businesses, companies are involved in the supply chain for our business. These are significant milestones in a very short space of time when you think of the scale of the industry and what it takes to move forward. And remember, we only have one project so far,” he explained.

With the arrival of Unity FPSO later this year and its start up in the first half of 2022, ExxonMobil Guyana expects to increase the current production capacity within the Stabroek block, realizing even greater benefits for Guyana. “What that means of course is that we will almost be tripling the revenue stream to government, which will have more funds to invest whether it is in education, infrastructure and other projects for the benefit of all the people in Guyana,” Routledge added. He highlighted the gas-to-energy project as an another avenue for significant benefit including the availability of hundreds of jobs during the construction phase. “We anticipate that we’ll get to the point of full funding of that project next year in 2022, at that point then we would expect that there will be the beginning of early work in Region 3—from the point of the landing location of the pipeline, making sure that the route for the pipeline is prepared to several works in the area of the Wales estate preparing for the power plant, which is another part of the scope,” he added.

ExxonMobil Guyana’s contribution to the local economy extends beyond its operational activities to include strategic community investments such as the Greater Guyana Initiative (GGI), which is a GY$20 billion dollar programme geared at building capacity across sectors. Already, there are ongoing projects with the University of Guyana, Technical Vocational Education Training institutions (TVETs) and the Centre for Local Business Development, benefitting more than 3,000 individuals.

The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometers). ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is operator and holds 45 percent interest in the Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30 percent interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds 25 percent interest.