ExxonMobil preps for major gas field development

Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 February 2025, 21:54 by Writer

ExxonMobil Guyana, the operator in the Stabroek Block, is preparing to extract at least one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day on top of 250 barrels per day of crude from the Longtail project, the company’s President Alistair Routledge said Wednesday.

“The gas, being this is more of a gas development, we anticipate could be in excess of one billion cubic feet per day of gas handling capacity,” he told a news conference.

While declining to provide specific details such as the volume of non-associated gas at Longtail ahead of next week’s Energy Conference & Supply Chain Expo 2025, he said the field development plan (FDP) would be submitted in 2026 and would also contain details. He, however, was cagey about prospects for Longtail’s gas usage, only saying that it would be to “the best benefit of the country.”

Already, he said ExxonMobil has submitted its request for environmental authorisation to Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Looking ahead, the company official said Hammerhead’s production would range between 130,000 to 180,000 barrels per day. Details for that project would also be contained in its FDP.

He also told the news conference, the first for 2025, that ExxonMobil was yet to receive approval from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the EPA of its plans to optimise production to 260,000 barrels per say or 265,000 barrels per day from the Payara and Liza 2 wells.

Mr Routledge said a team recently inspected the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels to satisfy itself about safety should the green light be granted to increase outputs beyond the vessels’ nameplate capacities. “They recently and to verify that, indeed, we have all the safety measures in place that we we have been working to assure so we’re we’re waiting for a follow up, but in our in our mind, we’ve done all the safety analysis. We’ve made some some changes to the facilities. There is more capacity to be given, particularly on the Prosperity vessel,” he said.