ExxonMobil says more technical work is needed to determine whether the Ranger discovery in Guyana’s Stabroek Block can be developed.
Neil Chapman, Senior Vice President of ExxonMobil, discussed the discovery during the Bernstein 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on May 28.
Chapman said Ranger is different from the discoveries that have supported ExxonMobil’s current developments in the block.
“Ranger is a carbonate structure. It’s very, very different from all the developments so far,” Chapman said.
Ranger was first discovered in 2018, marking ExxonMobil’s sixth find in the Stabroek Block. The well is located about 60 miles northwest of the Liza field and was the deepest discovery made that year. Ranger is located within a carbonate reservoir, a formation composed largely of marine organism fragments such as coral and algae.
Initial estimates from Rystad Energy in 2018 placed Ranger at 346 million barrels of oil. The estimate was revised to 432 million barrels in 2022. S&P Global Platts later assessed the resource at between 500 million and 600 million barrels.
Chapman said ExxonMobil is still working to determine whether Ranger can be commercially developed.
“We’ve got work to do there to see if we can develop that or not,” Chapman said.
ExxonMobil is the operator of the Stabroek Block with a 45% interest. Hess Corporation also holds 45%, while CNOOC holds 20%. The operator has discovered an estimated 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels there, has lined up eight development projects, and is expected to increase oil production to 1.7 million barrels per day by 2030.
