Hess Corporation, which holds a 30% working interest in Guyana’s coveted Stabroek Block, told industry watchers on Wednesday morning that it sold six one-million barrel cargos of sweet crude oil from Guyana for the second quarter of 2022. This represents an increase over the prior year’s quarter, when only two one-million barrel cargos were sold.
The increase is on account of start-up operations at the Liza Unity floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel which came into operation in February. That vessel is already producing at nameplate capacity totaling 220,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). It has also achieved background flare in a record 60-days.
In light of the Liza Unity and Liza Destiny FPSOs working simultaneously, Hess said net production guidance for Guyana for the full year 2022 is expected to be approximately 75,000 bopd. Hess said this includes approximately 6,000 bopd of tax barrels.
Hess said too that net production guidance for the third quarter of 2022 is expected to be in the range of 90,000 bopd to 95,000 bopd, which includes approximately 7,000 bopd of tax barrels. It was keen to note that there were no tax barrels in the first or second quarters.
The Liza Phases One and Two projects are currently producing at a combined 360,000 bpd.
The American independent producer was keen to remind that Guyana has two more sanctioned projects underway—Payara and Yellowtail.
With respect to Payara, Guyana’s third development, Hess said it will utilise the Prosperity FPSO with an expected capacity of 220,000 gross bopd, with first production expected in late 2023.
The fourth development, Yellowtail, was sanctioned in April and will utilise the ONE GUYANA FPSO with an expected capacity of approximately 250,000 gross bopd, with first production expected in 2025.
With the four projects in operation, Guyana’s oil production capacity is expected to be approximately 830,000 barrels of oil per day.