ExxonMobil’s Liza field offshore Guyana produced more than 45 million barrels of crude in the first four months of 2023. This represents a 163% increase over the 17 million barrels produced in the same period last year.
Data from Guyana’s Petroleum Management Programme indicates the field produced 11.15 million barrels in April, at approximately 371,570 barrels per day (bpd). This closed out the four month period of about 376,650 bpd.
The production boost observed over the same period last year is due to the introduction of the Liza Unity floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel in February 2022 and start-up of Liza Phase 2. The project took a few months to achieve background flare and reach its nameplate capacity of about 220,000 bpd.
Guyana is on track to produce more than 130 million barrels this year, above 101 million barrels in 2022. The Guyana government expects the sector to grow 35.6% in 2023.
Both projects are now producing in excess of their nameplate design capacities, and are demonstrating combined peaks in excess of 400,000 bpd. Production offshore Guyana is expected to see further growth in 2023, as the Payara project is expected to achieve first oil by the end of 2022. This, along with debottlenecking of the Liza Phase Two project, will see production levels hovering around 620,000 bpd.
ExxonMobil is the operator with a 45% stake, while Hess (30%) and CNOOc are its partners (25%).
