ExxonMobil’s ramp-up of its third floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel offshore Guyana has set an industry benchmark, according to Wood Mackenzie’s Upstream Research Principal Analyst, Luiz Hayum.
The Prosperity FPSO, built for the Payara development, reached its oil production target of 220,000 barrels per day (b/d) in January 2023. Having started production in November 2022, Payara’s production ramp-up was three months ahead of schedule.
“Impressively, it took a record-breaking two months to reach production capacity in the FPSO. Globally, no other FPSO project that started production in the past five years has had such a short ramp-up time,” Hayum is quoted as saying in a recent World Oil regional report on Guyana and Suriname.
Having hit 101,000 b/d in just 16 days, the ramp-up of the Payara project outpaced the similar capacity of the Liza 2 project, which peaked at 68,000 b/d in a similar period. Liza 1 took six months to get to 100,000 b/d. Prosperity also achieved background flare in a record 39 days.
The optimization of production at the Stabroek Block has been unprecedented and this can be increased even further. ExxonMobil’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Darren Woods said the company’s “design one, build many” concept is a huge factor in the consistent production ramp-up at its Guyana projects.
Dutch floater specialist SBM Offshore is the builder and operator of the Prosperity FPSO as well as the Liza Destiny and Unity vessels.
