Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 03 2023

LatAmOil GUYANA LatAmOil

The vessel will be able to handle 250,000- for linking the Pinktail and Tilapia oilfields to
275,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, as well Whiptail via subsea tie-ins, according to the
as 400-640mn cubic feet (11.3-18.1mn cubic documentation submitted to the EPA. This may
metres) per day of associated gas as 150,000- allow the project to target more than 1bn barrels
295,000 bpd of water, and will support 40-65 of oil equivalent (boe)in recoverable reserves, as
development wells. It will have a storage capacity the Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy esti-
of 2mn barrels of oil and will offload production mates that Whiptail, Pinktail and Tilapia hold
to a tanker every three to six days during periods 315mn, 269mn and 450mn boe respectively.
of peak production. Equity in Stabroek is split between Exx-
ExxonMobil Guyana and its partners expect onMobil with 45%, Hess with 30% and China
to carry out most of the work for the project National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) with
offshore. However, they will have to engage in 25%. The partners made their first discovery at
some land-based activities at marine shore bases the Liza field in 2015 and have now racked up
to support offshore operations. more than 30 finds, bringing the block’s recover-
The EPA will require the ExxonMobil sub- able reserve estimate to more than 11bn barrels
sidiary to carry out an environmental impact of recoverable boe.
assessment (EIA) to determine how the Whip- To date, ExxonMobil Guyana has launched
tail project might affect air and water quality, production at two fields – Liza-1 in December
marine and plant life, socioeconomic condi- 2019 and Liza-2 in February 2022. It is due to
tions and other factors in areas affected by the bring Payara on stream before the end of this
project. The potential for cumulative impact is year, and Yellowtail, the fourth development
significant, given that Whiptail is close to other project, will follow suit in 2025. Whiptail could
fields targeted for development, which may then begin production in late 2026 or early 2027
have a cumulative effect over time, OilNOW.gy – perhaps followed by Fangtooth, which Hess
commented. has identified as the most likely seventh devel-
ExxonMobil Guyana’s application calls opment prospect, around a year later. ™

ExxonMobil Guyana considering bidding

for additional assets offshore Guyana

ALISTAIR Routledge, the president of Exxon-
Mobil Guyana, told Reuters earlier this week
that his company was considering submitting
bids for some of the 14 blocks included in Guy-
ana’s offshore bidding round, which opened in
December of last year.
Speaking to Reuters in an interview, Rout-
ledge said ExxonMobil Guyana was interested
in the licensing round, even though it had not
committed to making an offer for any particular
bid. “Of course, we will look at it,” he remarked.
He also stressed, though, that his company, a
subsidiary of the US super-major ExxonMobil,
was not yet ready to make any pledges on this
front. “[It] would be premature to say yes or no”
to any opportunity before Guyana’s government
finalises the terms of its new production-sharing
agreement (PSA) model, he explained.
Georgetown did say last year that it was
updating its fiscal regime in order to raise the
government’s portion of profit oil from 14.5% to Three of the 14 blocks are ultra-deepwater sites within Area C (Image: OilNOW.gy)
27.5% through a combination of royalties and
shared production. This arrangement would production-sharing regime. According to Reu-
be considerably more favourable to the state ters, industry analysts do not expect the gov-
than the PSA that ExxonMobil and its partners ernment to meet its self-imposed deadline of
signed years ago for the Stabroek block, which is January 31 for this milestone due to outstanding
home to Guyana’s only producing oilfields. questions about contract revisions, legislative
So far, though, it has not yet finalised a new changes and the offshore licensing round.

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