With over 17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—and counting—discovered in Guyana’s Stabroek Block, the government is now focusing on its development. However, the process is a bit more complex than oil production. With ExxonMobil’s experience, the government’s goal can be realized. However, the approach requires meticulous planning and collaboration.
Alistair Routledge, President of ExxonMobil Guyana recently sat down with OilNOW for an exclusive discussion on the South American producer’s gas future.
“Developing gas is a lot more complicated than developing the oil fields,” Routledge said. Unlike oil, gas requires both an understanding of the resource and an established market. “We all know that there isn’t an established gas market in Guyana today, so we have to work on developing that.”
The absence of a gas market means the country must find potential uses and industries that can sustain demand. “What sort of demand off-takers could there be,” Routledge asked. Beyond the Wales development, Routledge sees the gas being harnessed for an Alumina Plant, Data Centres, and a Fertilizer Plant.
But building out this market will take time and cooperation. “This has to be a collaborative effort between the government and its understanding of what the priorities are for the country in the way of developing different economic fronts,” he noted. At the same time, planners must assess “what can the resource support, what’s the timing of the gas, what are the volumes of gas that will be available from offshore, and what’s the demand profile onshore.”
“This is going to be a very iterative collaborative process over quite some time in order to reach a roadmap for development of the gas resource,” he added.
Significant non-associated gas finds have been made in the southeastern part of the Stabroek Block. ExxonMobil is now assessing the data from the appraisal works it recently completed to lay out a comprehensive gas use plan. And all this is being done with several new developments in tow. Anchoring the vast gas resources are the Longtail and Haimara discoveries. Longtail has already been identified as the 8th development after Hammerhead.
