Guyana is set to witness the startup of its fourth oil development, Yellowtail—one of the largest investments ever made in the country. Priced at US$10 billion, this project is spearheaded by ExxonMobil and its Stabroek Block partners Hess and CNOOC.
The Yellowtail project will feature the ONE GUYANA floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will produce 250,000 barrels of oil per day (b/d). This will push Guyana’s total production to nearly 900,000 b/d, making it the world’s largest per capita oil producer. Additionally, it marks the highest initial oil production observed for an FPSO in the industry.
The ONE GUYANA FPSO is also designed to process 450 million cubic feet of gas per day, inject 300,000 barrels of water daily, and store up to two million barrels of crude oil. Set to sail from Singapore in the first half of 2025, the vessel will begin producing oil by the second half of that year. It has already completed its final module lifts at the Seatrium yard in Singapore and is now entering the critical integration and commissioning phase.
According to SBM Offshore’s Chief Executive Officer, Oivind Tangen, the project is making solid progress. Tangen stated in an Oct. 4 interview with OilNOW, “It’s going great. You’ll see a fantastic video on the internet as well when we finish the module next. The project right now is in the final stage where we go through the commissioning of the unit. This consists of testing the entirety of the integration scope. As we take our modules, we integrate them into the asset and then connect them together, and then go through a series of leak testing and commission testing to say we’re good to go, and that’s progressing really well in the yard in Singapore.”
Tangen emphasized the importance of learnings from previous projects, including Payara and Unity, adding, “Always, we find ways of improving the quality of work and also executing it in greater efficiency. So, ONE GUYANA is on great track.”
The ONE GUYANA FPSO will target 925 million barrels from the Yellowtail and Redtail fields, with plans to offload oil every four days. Looking ahead, two more FPSOs—Errea Wittu and Jaguar—are set to join the production lineup, each expected to produce 250,000 b/d. By 2027/2028, these vessels will bring Guyana’s oil production capacity to a staggering 1.3 million b/d.
Read more about ExxonMobil’s Guyana projects: A timeline of Exxon’s oil development projects in Guyana
