Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo last Friday defended the government’s position to support ExxonMobil recovering the US$160 million cost of its Guyana onshore facility, through the cost oil mechanism in the Stabroek Block Production Sharing Agreement (PSA).
ExxonMobil Guyana President, Alistair Routledge, said during a media conference Thursday that the cost is recoverable.
Jagdeo then had cause to defend the government’s position after being reminded that, while in opposition, he had said that the now governing party would not support this.
While he acknowledged the comments he made in 2020, Dr. Jagdeo said a lot has changed. He said in 2020, he did not believe that Exxon needed such a building for the scale of operations. The company was then producing 120,000 barrels of crude per day.
However, he said by the time construction of Exxon’s Ogle facility is completed (around April 2024), Guyana will be producing 600,000 bpd. Exxon added the Liza Phase Two project in 2022. Payara is expected to startup later this year.
A timeline of Exxon’s oil development projects in Guyana | OilNOW
Jagdeo said it has evolved from just a headquarter building to house staff.
“They have 250 staff now – They’re renting. That would evolve to 500 staff members, most of which will be Guyanese [who] will work there, but it is not no longer just a headquarter building,” Jagdeo said. “It’s a training facility, it’s the operations suite – the control centre for all the offshore operations will be done in that same building.”
The Vice President said that to manage a 1 million bpd industry, from a safety and operational perspective, a facility of that nature is needed, with advanced capabilities.
Exxon plans to hike production offshore Guyana to more than 1.2 million bpd by 2027/2028.
