Guyana’s prolific Stabroek Block continues to churn out successful results for operator ExxonMobil (XOM) and its partners Hess and CNOOC, and by the third quarter 2022, production is expected to ramp up significantly.
During the oil major’s first quarter earnings call on Friday, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Darren Woods said that XOM anticipates daily production rates to be over 340,000 barrels of oil.
XOM’s first floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel – the Liza Destiny – is currently producing 130,000 b/d and just recently, the nameplate capacity was revised to 140,000 b/d, Hess Corporation, a 30% stakeholder at the Stabroek Block said.
XOM’s second development – Liza Phase 2, achieved startup in February and the Liza Unity vessel is expected to achieve a nameplate capacity of 220,000 b/d, also by the third quarter, Woods said.
That, combined with the Liza Destiny is what will push XOM’s total production capacity to 360,000 b/d.
XOM’s third development in the Stabroek Block is under construction to produce at the Payara field, utilising the Prosperity FPSO. Though initially set for 2024, the Payara project start-up is likely before yearend 2023 with a production capacity of around 220,000 b/d gross.
This was attributed to the construction of the Prosperity FPSO, to be used for the project, running approximately five months ahead of schedule.
Last week, SBM Offshore, the Dutch offshore solutions provider building Guyana’s FPSOs, indicated that the first series of topside modules were lifted onto the hull of the vessel, at Keppel Shipyard, Singapore.
The other development, Yellowtail – the fourth and largest project to date on the Stabroek Block, received government approval, and is on schedule to start-up in 2025. The assigned FPSO – ONE GUYANA should have a production capacity of about 250,000 b/d gross.
And with five new discoveries made already this year, the Stabroek Block is now estimated to hold nearly 11 billion recoverable oil-equivalent barrels.
At least six FPSOs with a production capacity of more than 1 million gross barrels of oil per day are anticipated online at Stabroek by 2027, with the potential for up to 10 FPSOs to develop the resource.
