Page 7 - GLNG Week 44 2020

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This comes as the super-major seeks to LatAmOil: Busy in Guyana
reduce spending amid this year’s industry down- The US super-major ExxonMobil and its part-
turn, despite only entering into the consortium ners in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana have
last year. had a busy week.
“ExxonMobil is evaluating all appropriate First, the group has raised its reserve esti-
steps to significantly reduce capital and operat- mate for the block. US-based Hess, a non-op-
ing expenses in the near term as a result of mar- erating investor in the project, said last week
ket conditions and commodity price decreases,” that the reserve estimate for Stabroek had
an ExxonMobil spokesperson told Pakistani been raised from 8bn barrels of oil equiva-
financial daily Business Recorder. lent to 9bn boe following the new finds made
The company continues to pursue LNG at Uaru, Redtail and Yellowtail-2 this year.
import plans elsewhere in Asia, having John Hess, the CEO of Hess, said during a
signed a memorandum of understanding quarterly conference call that the partners
(MoU) last week to develop an integrated might eventually deploy 10 floating produc-
LNG-to-power project in the Vietnamese tion, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessels
city of Hai Phong. (See: ExxonMobil, JERA at the block.
sign Vietnamese MoU, page 14) Hess went on to say that the break-even
According to a joint press release with Japan’s price for the three sections of Stabroek that have
JERA, ExxonMobil has submitted a master plan been green-lighted for development – Liza-1,
application with a project concept for consid- Liza-2 and Payara – was $25-35 per barrel of
eration and potential inclusion in Vietnam’s Brent crude. These fields are “world-class by any
National Power Development Plan (PDP). Hai measure,” he remarked. Second, Guyana’s gov-
Phong City, for its part, has submitted a letter ernment is in negotiations with ExxonMobil and
of recommendation to include power demand its partners for the supply of associated gas to the
with potential locations of power plants and domestic market. According to Vice-President
LNG import infrastructure. The submissions Bharrat Jagdeo, Georgetown is seeking fuel for a
are awaiting government approvals. gas-to-power project and hopes to use associated
Separately, the second train at Chevron’s Gor- gas from Stabroek to fire a new 300-MW thermal
gon LNG project remains offline, but the company power plant (TPP).
said in its third-quarter earnings call that weld The plant is due to begin operations in 2023 and
repairs and testing on the train had been com- will receive gas via a pipeline originating at the Liza
pleted. Chevron is now preparing to restart LNG field. The government wants to select a landing
production from the train in the second half of site for this pipe before the end of the year and will
November. The super-major anticipates taking begin construction at that site in 2021, said Natural
Train 1 offline to inspect its propane heat exchang- Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat.
ers for similar weld quality issues shortly after Train
2 is back in service. A similar approach will be taken If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
with Train 3 after Train 1 is back online following the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click
inspections and – if necessary – repairs. here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor .

Week 44 06•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7