Liza was the biggest, best prospect in a basin with zero discoveries. It kicked into gear the development of what is now known as one of the world’s prolific deepwater assets, the Stabroek Block. It is now 10 years after ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (then Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited) and its partners Hess and CNOOC hit pay at the Liza well on May 5, 2015. And Guyana is South America’s shining oil star.
“Many have heard some of the stories about years, decades in Guyana exploring for oil and gas, unsuccessfully, and it was a real struggle to convince investors to take that first well and drill it. We lost our partner just a year before we drilled that well, our partner walked away. We had to find some other partners… ExxonMobil board did not want to 100% fund the well,” ExxonMobil Guyana President Alistair Routledge recalled at a recent conference.
What followed was a pace of development that many described as unprecedented.
By December 2019, the first development – Liza Phase 1 – was churning out oil from the Liza Destiny floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) built by SBM Offshore. Guyana started producing around 75,000 barrels per day (b/d).
Liza was so big, it required a second phase with a second FPSO – the Liza Unity. This would become Guyana’s second development in the Stabroek Block. And exploration never stopped. In fact, Exxon kept on discovering more oil in the massive 6.6 million acre Block. By the time Liza Phase 2 was sanctioned, Exxon was only up to 13 discoveries and the resource estimate was at six billion barrels. The company and its partners have achieved an amazing feat in Guyana.
Today, the Stabroek Block has logged 46 discoveries. Our current resource estimate is 12.6 billion barrels. The FPSO count is up to four, with two additional developments, Payara and Yellowtail. Yellowtail begins production in August. Payara was something special. It was branded one of the brightest lights in oil’s dark year. It came at a time when investments in greenfield projects dropped to their lowest in 30 years – a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Exxon hit a few milestones with Payara. It achieved background flare in a record 39 days after starting production in November 2024. The Payara project reached its target production in two months, despite the expectation that it would take five. Exxon has even more projects coming. There is Uaru with the Errea Wittu FPSO and Whiptail with the Jaguar FPSO. Those two have been sanctioned, and work has significantly progressed. Exxon has its eyes on Hammerhead as the 7th development, and Longtail right after.
“By the end of 2026, 2027, we will be producing a million barrels per day, in just over 11 years. And you compare that to other locations, other basins around the world, whether it is Brazil or Angola…it took those locations 50 years to get from that first discovery to a million barrels,” Routledge said.
And that’s only on the oil side of things. Exxon and the Guyana government have partnered on a transformational Gas-to-Energy project to deliver affordable and stable electricity to its citizens. With it comes endless possibilities. A broader gas market build-out is under consideration to utilise the 17 trillion cubic feet of gas also discovered in the Stabroek Block.
From the ground up, Guyana’s energy sector was built. It has a Local Content Law pushing for Guyanese to be at the forefront of success. And that Law also pushes businesses in Guyana to up their standards to align internationally, bringing about a shift in the way things are done.
Though 10 years have passed, the country still has ways to go. There’s still more exploring to do and even more oil to develop.
And to think, this all started with Liza.
