Page 4 - LatAmOil Week 17 2021

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

(Image: ExxonMobil)
More oil discovered at Stabroek

Legislators approve measures that are likely to give Pemex more control over the downstream sector

THE past week has been a busy one for Exxon- the well, which was sunk in 1,725-metre-deep
Mobil Guyana, a subsidiary of the US super-ma- water by the Noble Sam Croft drillship. These
WHAT: jor ExxonMobil. reservoirs mark the 19th discovery at Stabroek,
The US super-major has On the upside, the company has reported a it added.
made its 19th discovery new oil discovery and raised the reserve estimate Additionally, it noted that the new reservoirs
at the Stabroek block for the Stabroek block, its flagship asset in the were further below the seabed than the oil-bear-
offshore Guyana. Guyanese offshore zone. It has also unveiled ing layers found in Uaru-1, the well where Exx-
plans for the fourth stage of development work onMobil Guyana made its 16th discovery in
WHY: at Stabroek and is moving ahead with drilling January 2020. It did not say exactly how much
The licence area may work in other sections of the block. oil Uaru-2 might hold, but it described the crude
eventually support 10 On the downside, though, ExxonMobil as high-quality.
FPSOs extracting more Guyana is still under scrutiny because of the ExxonMobil Guyana also indicated that the
than 1mn bpd of oil.
equipment problems that have been affecting find might affect its expectations for Stabroek,
oil production levels and associated gas flaring. which is already known to contain 9bn barrels
WHAT NEXT: Additionally, it revealed last week that some of of oil equivalent (boe) in recoverable reserves.
ExxonMobil has chosen
its fourth development its offshore workers had tested positive for the “Uaru-2 will add to the previously announced
site and is now mulling COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel gross discovered recoverable resource estimate
its options for fifth- and coronavirus. for the block,” it said.
sixth-stage operations. This essay will examine recent developments The US giant added that it might eventually
in slightly more depth. need to deploy as many as 10 floating produc-
tion, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessels in
Discovery order to optimise Stabroek’s potential. By com-
The biggest news for ExxonMobil Guyana, the parison, it has said before that it might use six
operator of the consortium set up to explore FPSOs at the block. (Indeed, it reported in its
and develop Stabroek, is the discovery of new statement that at least six such vessels were likely
oil reserves. to begin operating there by 2027, when produc-
On April 27, the company said in a statement tion levels are slated to hit 1mn barrels per day.)
that it had found oil in Uaru-2, the second explo- Hess, a US-based independent with a
ration well drilled within the Uaru section of the non-operating stake in Stabroek, has also
block. It reported that it had encountered about sounded an optimistic note about the size of the
36.7 metres of oil-bearing reservoirs within new discovery.

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