Chief Executive Officer of Hess Corporation, John Hess, said he hopes that by the end of 2023, approval will be secured for ExxonMobil to place its sixth floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel at the Stabroek Block.
Hess is a 30% stakeholder in the block, where Exxon, the operator, has discovered nearly 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels.
ExxonMobil’s plan is to place six FPSOs offshore Guyana to produce 1.2 million barrels of oil per day by 2027.
Speaking at the Bernstein’s 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference earlier this month, Hess explained that as early as 2015, after the first discovery was made in Guyana, he had shared a conversation with Exxon’s previous board chair and CEO, Rex Tillerson which gave him an understanding of the company’s approach.
He said Tillerson told him, “John, we want to go as fast as we can. We don’t want to have any leakage.”
Hess said this means that the projects need to be capital efficient and operating expense efficient, and that Exxon is probably the best in the business at this.
“Doing one ship a year is a huge task for project management, for execution, for the yards to handle it,” Hess explained. “So, their philosophy of ‘design one, build many’, doing one a year is industry leading…”
Turning his attention from the sixth development, the Hess CEO noted that right now, the consortium is “queued up” and looking at what the oil will be for the fifth FPSO.
Exxon is likely to add a third reservoir, in addition to Uaru and Mako, for its fifth development. The vessel could be producing as much as 275,000 barrels of oil per day. Hess said he is hoping that approval for this project comes before year end.
