ExxonMobil is drilling the Hammerhead-4 appraisal well offshore Guyana, ahead of its Hammerhead development project, which aims to produce oil from the 2018 discovery.
According to ExxonMobil Guyana President Alistair Routledge, the appraisal drilling of Hammerhead-4 is a crucial step in further understanding the resources present.
“It was a key well for us just to drill the up-dip portion of the reservoir and ensure that we didn’t see any different trends from a resource pressure perspective, to give us the confidence again, that we’re designing the facilities to the right capacities,” Routledge said.
Routledge explained that the data gathered from Hammerhead-4 would help answer critical questions about the production capacity of the Hammerhead project and the potential uses for the gas discovered alongside the oil.
While ExxonMobil initially provided a range of 120,000 to 180,000 barrels of oil per day for the Hammerhead project’s production capacity, Routledge said the company has not yet made a final determination on the exact capacity. “We’ll likely narrow down to something near the middle of the range,” he said.
First oil is expected in 2028.
On the gas side, Routledge acknowledged that there are considerations about Hammerhead gas. Currently, gas from other projects is used for injection to maintain oil recovery and to fuel the operations of floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels. However, Routledge noted that the government of Guyana is seeking more gas to support the Gas-to-Energy project. As a result, ExxonMobil is evaluating options for handling the excess gas from the Hammerhead project, including whether to flow gas to other fields to maintain oil recovery or to transport the gas to shore.
Routledge noted that Yellowtail, Uaru and Whiptail—all sanctioned projects which are yet to produce—are also being looked at.
The government recently asked for proposals for the second phase of the Gas-to-Energy project, which would require Exxon to facilitate transport of an additional 75 million cubic feet per day (mcf/d) through a pipeline to shore, on top of the 50 mcf/d in phase one. The gas for the first phase will flow from the Liza field.
