ExxonMobil has identified four additional potential discovery opportunities in Guyana after applying artificial intelligence to its Stabroek Block exploration data. Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Neil Hansen disclosed the results during ExxonMobil’s second-quarter 2026 earnings call on July 31.
The company trained artificial-intelligence models using information gathered from previous discoveries, drilling operations, and its analysis of the block’s subsurface. Hansen said the models were then applied to other areas of the offshore acreage.
“We really put a lot of effort into artificial intelligence and training models based on what we found already, all the drilling that we’ve done, the characterization of that subsurface, and have unleashed that in the rest of the block,” Hansen said.
He said the work produced “four new discovery opportunities above and beyond what we thought were opportunities.”
ExxonMobil has not determined whether those opportunities contain commercial quantities of hydrocarbons. “Obviously, a lot more work to do to confirm those,” Hansen said.
The company did not disclose the locations of the opportunities. It also did not provide estimated resource volumes or a timetable for drilling.
ExxonMobil Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said the results supported the company’s view that further exploration potential remains in Guyana.
“I think our view is we’re not done yet in Guyana, and we continue to see a really bright future there,” Woods said.
The Stabroek Block has supported Guyana’s offshore production growth since first oil was achieved in December 2019. ExxonMobil said gross production reached more 900,000 barrels per day during the second quarter of 2026.
Breakthrough technology behind ExxonMobil unprecedented success in Guyana | OilNOW
Woods separately said a large area of the block remains under force majeure. That area cannot yet be fully assessed because of the border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela.
He said ExxonMobil is awaiting the International Court of Justice’s eventual ruling on the controversy before determining how to proceed with work in that area.
“We feel there’s an opportunity then to start shooting seismic and understand what that acreage potentially holds,” Woods said. The company did not state whether any of the four opportunities generated by the artificial-intelligence models are within the acreage affected by force majeure.
ExxonMobil has made more than 30 significant discoveries in Guyana since the Liza find in May 2015. Four Stabroek Block developments are producing oil: Liza 1, Liza 2, Payara, and Yellowtail.
