ExxonMobil Guyana’s Production Manager, Mike Ryan, announced full production capacity has been reached at both Liza projects offshore Guyana.
Exxon was able to safely install a new gas compressor aboard the Liza Destiny floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel with no issue.
Ryan said, “[I’m] really happy to say that we met our expectation of both delivering it, installing it, and safely starting it up in July, and we’ve achieved background flare now on Liza Destiny.”
Background flare is less than one million standard cubic feet per day.
The company had encountered issues starting up the equipment when it achieved first oil at Liza Phase One in December 2019, causing it to flare above background levels.
In response to this, the new government has instituted a system of fees for flaring. Ryan revealed that approximately US$10 million of fees were paid over the period since the provision was added to the Liza Phase One environmental permit, and up to June.
ExxonMobil is now safely producing at 140,000 barrels per day (bpd), 20,000 bpd up from the initial nameplate capacity of 120,000 bpd, due to production optimisation work done byExxon earlier this year. Ryan said Exxon will continue to evaluate options to maximise value to the government and its shareholders, in this regard.
Over at the Liza Phase Two project, which achieved first oil in February, Ryan announced that Exxon was able to safely commission the gas compression equipment in a record 60 days.
The Liza Unity floater is now producing at nameplate capacity of 220,000 barrels per day.
Collectively, Guyana projects are producing at 360,000 barrels per day.
ExxonMobil expects to bring the Payara project on by 2023 yearend, and Yellowtail by 2025. At leastsix offshore floaters are planned as the goal for 2027, producing more than a million barrels of oil per day.
