Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 17 2022

LatAmOil GUYANA LatAmOil

But Liam Mallon, the president of ExxonMobil 2022. The third project, Payara, is due to follow
Upstream Co., said the new finds would help suit in late 2023 and Yellowtail, the fourth, in
determine the course of development work in 2025. Uaru, the fifth, may begin production in
that section of the licence area. “These discover- 2026.
ies and the updated resource estimate increase In its statement, ExxonMobil noted that it
the confidence we have in our ambitious explo- had moved the expected start date for first oil
ration strategy for the Stabroek block and will at Payara forward. The company had said pre-
help to inform our future development plans for viously that it hoped to launch its third develop-
the south-east part of the block,” he explained. ment project in 2024, but it now expects to do so
Mallon added: “ExxonMobil remains com- earlier because work on the Prosperity floating
mitted to delivering value at an accelerated pace production, storage and off-loading (FPSO)
to the people of Guyana, our partners and share- vessel is running around five months ahead
holders and reliably supplying affordable energy of schedule. It said it anticipated being able to
to meet increasing demand around the world.” deploy and launch the Prosperity, which will be
Equity in the Stabroek project is divided used to support development operations at the
between ExxonMobil, the operator, with 45%; field, before the end of 2023.
Hess, a US-based independent, with 30%; and Yellowtail, meanwhile, is still slated to begin
state-run China National Offshore Oil Corp. production in 2025, after the One Guyana FPSO
(CNOOC), with 25%. is completed. This fourth FPSO will be able to
handle 250,000 barrels per day of crude, more
Production schedule than the 220,000 bpd handled by the Prosper-
The US giant and its partners have already made ity at Payara, the 220,000 bpd handled by the
commercial discoveries within more than 20 Liza Unity at Liza-2 or the 120,000-140,000 bpd
sections of Stabroek since 2015. They brought handled by the Liza-Destiny at Liza-1. (SBM
Liza-1, the first development project, on stream Offshore of the Netherlands built both the Liza
in December 2019 and then launched Liza-2, Destiny and the Liza Unity; it is also building the
the second development project, in February Prosperity and the One Guyana.) ™

Jagdeo: Guyana will decide on

NOC or auctions by September

GUYANA’S Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said
during the Bloomberg New Energy Finance
(NEF) Summit last week that Georgetown was
on track to make a final decision regarding the
potential formation of a national oil company
(NOC) in September of this year. The South
American state is deciding between establishing
the proposed NOC in order to develop its oil and
gas resources and auctioning blocks off to new
investors as an alternative, Jagdeo explained.
Should Guyana decide on the former course,
it will play the role of a passive investor, he
stressed. Additionally, the government will “get
a strategic developer to work within the com-
pany to take shares and operate the company for
us” if it opts to establish a national firm, he said.
Numerous large companies based in the
Middle East have expressed an interest in play-
ing the role of strategic partner, he added. He did
not identify any of these potential partners. Block C is an unassigned offshore blocks that has drawn interest (File Image)
Meanwhile, the vice president continued,
in the event that Georgetown selects the auc- from investors.
tion route, the offshore area known as Block C Before any auctions can be held, Jagdeo said,
appears to be of particular interest to potential Guyana’s government will need to make policy
bidders. He also noted that an onshore block decisions with respect to the model that the
covering about 2.3mn acres (9,600 square km) auctions will follow and the specifics of the legal
in size in the Takutu basin had drawn attention framework that will guide the process.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 17 28•April•2022