The demand for shore base support services is set to grow tenfold as Stabroek Block operator ExxonMobil eyes at least 10 floating oil platforms offshore Guyana around the end of the decade.
Exxon is forging ahead with its exploration and development activities, having already discovered close to 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent. It has two developments running – Liza Phase 1 and 2, utilising the Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating, production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels and with them, an armada of support vessels.
By 2025, activities will ramp up significantly with two more projects, Payara and Yellowtail, creating huge demand for support services.
The bulk of Guyana’s shore base activities for the Stabroek Block is being handled by the Guyana Shore Base Inc. (GYSBI) at Houston on the East Bank corridor. The company recently secured an 11-year contract extension with Exxon to continue supporting its Stabroek Block activities.
And Guyana will see the construction of several others.
By 2024, the Vreed-en-Hoop Shore Base will be up and running on a 400-acre stretch on the West Bank corridor. And work on GAICO Construction and General Services Inc.’s dry dock laydown and storage yard at Nismes Foreshore, West Bank Demerara is moving apace with the company on track for phase one to be completed in October. Then over on the coast, CGX Energy is advancing the construction of its Berbice Deep Water Harbour.
Several other companies including Tristar Incorporated, JOP Property Holdings Incorporated and ISIKA Shore Base Inc. have also submitted applications to Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking authorisation to establish shore base facilities in the South American country.
Those applications were made since 2020. Guyana’s Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill told OilNOW that no new applications have been made this year.
But with Exxon’s development trajectory and the upcoming bid round signalling even more development offshore Guyana, they will soon roll in.
