Guyana’s Uaru development is supporting hundreds of workers across drilling, installation and other activities as the project advances toward production at the end of 2026.
The US$12.7 billion project, ExxonMobil’s fifth offshore development in the Stabroek Block, could employ up to 540 people during peak development drilling and about 600 during the installation of the Errea Wittu floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel and associated subsea activities.
According to the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA), the estimates are preliminary and could change based on the final selection of drill ships, FPSO vessel, subsea installation vessels, support vessels and shorebase facilities.
Uaru is designed to produce 250,000 barrels of oil per day and targets more than 800 million barrels of recoverable oil. The development will use up to 10 drill centers and 44 wells, with the Mako and Snoek fields connected through subsea tiebacks.
The project’s development phase will include drilling, subsea infrastructure installation, and the installation of umbilicals, risers and flowlines. It will also involve FPSO mobilization, hook-up, commissioning and start-up.
Project documents indicate that the scale of the offshore work will also create demand for onshore support. The EIA identifies potential opportunities for Guyanese businesses in areas including shorebases, warehouses, storage and pipe yards, fabrication facilities, fuel supply and waste management.
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Marine and aviation services will also be required throughout the development. The workforce will largely be supplied by contractors rather than directly by ExxonMobil.
Once production operations are established, the project’s workforce is expected to settle at about 100 to 160 people. Each conventional export tanker is expected to carry an additional 25 to 30 personnel.
The EIA estimates that decommissioning activities could eventually require a peak workforce of about 60 people.
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