Page 5 - LatAmOil Week 18 2022

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

“Finding more gas” be in the vicinity of Pluma, a section of the block
There are signs that ExxonMobil might soon be that is believed to contain gas as well as oil.
paying at least a little more attention to associ- Meanwhile, in its statement announcing the
ated gas in the future than it has done thus far. finds, ExxonMobil did not say whether the wells
One of those signs came from Guyana’s Natu- held gaseous or liquid hydrocarbons, in contrast
ral Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat, who to its other statements on the outcome of drilling
spoke about Georgetown’s plans for the Stabroek projects at Stabroek. However, Liam Mallon, the
block during the Offshore Technology Confer- president of ExxonMobil Upstream Co., said the
ence in Houston. new discoveries would help the company deter-
Bharrat stated that the Guyanese government mine the course of development work in the
was moving forward with the original plans for south-eastern section of the block.
the GTP project, which called for the construc- And the US super-major may indeed be
tion of a pipeline capable of pumping 50mn drawing up plans for making that part of the
cubic feet (1.42mn cubic metres) per day of Stabroek block a focus of future development.
associated gas from the Liza oilfield to shore. He According to images published by OilNOW.gy, There is some
also said that Georgetown had asked ExxonMo- a Guyanese news service that is very favourable circumstantial
bil to use pipe with a 12-inch (304.8-mm) diam- to the oil industry, to accompany a story on the
eter rather than the originally proposed 8-inch fibre-optic cable networks that will be installed evidence that
(203.2-mm) diameter so that delivery volumes along the GTP pipeline, ExxonMobil may be
could be increased later to 120-130 mmcf (3.40- considering installing its sixth floating produc- Georgetown and
3.68 mcm) per day. tion, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel in a
But he also said that ExxonMobil might have location that is relatively close to the south-east ExxonMobil don’t
to build a second pipeline to send gas to shore corner of the licence area. want to overlook
from Stabroek. Since the US giant is slated to The images were not attributed, but they
continue with exploration work and may find appear to emanate from ExxonMobil and are gas, especially
more gas, it may end up needing another link, related to the company’s project documents for
he commented. work at Uaru, its fifth development target at the now that world
He also indicated that the likelihood of find- block.
ing gas was particularly high in the south-east- gas markets have
ern section of the Stabroek block, which Circumstantial evidence become tight
terminates at the maritime border between Guy- None of this is substantive evidence that Guy-
ana and Suriname. “The trend is ... as you move ana’s government is making a decided turn
closer to Suriname, we are finding more gas,” towards gas – or that ExxonMobil is taking its
he was quoted as saying by OilNOW.gy. “So we focus off of oil at Stabroek. Indeed, the US com-
expect that as we move closer, our gas reserves pany has every reason to concentrate on oil right
will increase, and we might look at bringing a now, while prices are relatively high and the
second pipeline to shore.” world crude market is relatively tight.
However, there is also some circumstantial
Recent developments evidence that Georgetown and ExxonMobil
Bharrat did not say whether ExxonMobil had don’t want to overlook gas, especially now that
expectations of finding gas within any specific world gas markets are also tight. So assuming
sections of Stabroek. that Bharrat is correct and the eastern end of
It is worth noting, though, that the US giant’s Guyana’s offshore zone turns out to contain
three most recent discoveries – Barreleye-1, more gas, further exploration may serve to
Lukanani-1 and Patwa-1 – were all made within uncover additional reserves and build a stronger
the south-eastern part of the block. According to case for utilisation and development.
a map published last month by Kaieteur News, at If so, ExxonMobil may be well served by a
least one of these fields, Lukanani-1, appears to second GTP pipeline. ™

Bharrat said more gas is being found in the sections of Stabroek near the border with Suriname (Image: ExxonMobil)

Week 18 05•May•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P5