ExxonMobil Guyana held public consultations for the Yellowtail development on Thursday where it confirmed that 2022 is being targeted for final investment decision on the project that is set to catapult the country’s total oil production to more than 800,000 barrels per day by 2025.
Production Manager, Mike Ryan, said FID for Yellowtail is expected to be made in the second quarter of 2022.
He made these remarks in a message delivered at two virtual consultation sessions held to incorporate public views into the terms of reference for the Yellowtail Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The public is being invited to make submissions to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during a 28-day window – May 9 to June 5 – regarding questions and matters to be answered or considered in the EIA.
To support public education and opportunities to provide comments to the EPA Exxon has aired information on the EIA process and the Yellowtail Project on the National Communications Network over the past couple of weeks and posted the information on the ExxonMobil Guyana Facebook Page.
The project is currently entering the engineering stage, and the environmental impact assessment (EIA) will be conducted this year. Ryan noted key project milestones guiding ExxonMobil for this development – selecting the design basis by mid-2021, EIA commencement in May 2021, engineering procurement construction by September/October 2021, Final Investment Decision in the second quarter of 2022, drilling commencement in the first quarter of 2024, commencement of SURF (subsea umbilicals, risers, and flowlines) installation in the second quarter of 2024, FPSO installation in the third quarter of 2025, and project startup by the end of 2025.
Once started, the FPSO is expected to offload crude every 4-6 days, an estimate based on the design production rate of 220,000 to 250,000 barrels per day, and storage capacity of 2 million barrels.
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Other design specifications noted by Ryan include a daily gas extraction rate of 400 million – 620 million standard cubic feet per day (SCFD), and produced water estimate of up to 225,000 barrels a day.
“These estimates are for the life of the field and are used by our engineers to ensure that the facility is designed appropriately to be able to handle fluids coming from the reservoir,” Ryan said.
He highlighted key modules that will be on the Yellowtail FPSO – produced water treatment, oil separation, gas compression and injection, the flare tower and its safety system, water treatment, water injection, risers and manifolds, power generation and crude metering system.
Ryan said Yellowtail will be located southeast of the other developments, with the Yellowtail FPSO to be located approximately 29 km from the FPSO for Liza Phase 1 – the Destiny, 20km from Phase 2 – the Unity, and 40km from the FPSO for Payara – Prosperity.
