Since 2015, ExxonMobil has made 18 discoveries at the Stabroek block offshore Guyana with just two non-commercial encounters – Skipjack-1 and Sorubim-1 – which demonstrate a 90% exploration success rate in the prolific Guyana-Suriname basin.
The 18 discoveries so far amount to approximately 9 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources providing for an average discovery size of 500 million boe.
Analysts say the discovered and potential resource in stacked petroleum systems offshore Guyana continues to grow and this will see the total estimated recoverable resource further increasing in coming years.
Greg Hill, Chief Operating Officer at Hess Corporation, a 30% stakeholder at Stabroek block, told investors on the company’s Q3 earnings call that the 9 billion boe upgrade brings the resources “close to being up to date” signaling there is room for further upside, noting that the key characteristics of the block is its sheer scale and size.
According to a study by Wood Mackenzie, the Liza Phase 1 and 2 developments account for about 25% of the Stabroek resources with phase 3, which includes Payara, Pacora and Liza Deep, accounting for 16%.
Stabroek Block offers best options in a global industry under pressure
The study shows that a 6-phase development of Guyana’s offshore oil fields will see a gradual ramp up in production, hitting a peak of close to 1.2 million barrels a day in the 2028-2029 period. Based on the current level of production in Latin America and the Caribbean, this would make Guyana the third largest oil producer in the region, behind Brazil and Mexico.
Meanwhile, Rystad Energy expects the total number of FPSOs to reach 10 over the next decade with oil production in Guyana hitting 1.4 million bpd by the mid-2030s, which could catapult it to the number two spot by that time in Latin America, behind only Brazil.
