Just over three years ago the South American country of Guyana was little known around the world and completely off the radar of petroleum-producing nations. But with the giant oil discovery at the Liza field in 2015 that has significantly changed.
The small country of around 750,000 people is now considered to be a global hotspot for oil and gas exploration. A series of unprecedented discoveries by US oil major ExxonMobil has helped to derisk the Guyana-Suriname basin and stimulate the interest of other majors looking to strike it big.
Industry Analyst Wood Mackenzie believes that the eight major discoveries made so far by ExxonMobil in the Stabroek Block will lead to even more oil finds. “Guyana is really going from strength to strength…,” said Ruaraidh Montgomery, Senior Corporate Research Analyst, speaking on the company’s weekly podcast on June 25. “We believe there is material yet to find potential. Exxon’s eight discoveries are just part of the story,” he added.
The eighth oil find at Longtail-1, announced on June 20, will see a third drillship added to the fleet offshore. This, Wood Mackenzie said, is a signal of heightened exploration activities that could lead to potentially more discoveries.
“Exxon and its partners on the block will be having a second drill ship and that will help them speed up the pace of exploration drilling. So there are huge amounts of running room on that (Stabroek) block alone so that’s one area to look out for. Exxon…also operates two blocks in the north which are unexplored at the moment so they are future targets for Exxon. You have got other operators in plays such as Repsol; they operate a big block just to the south of the Stabroek, so lots of potential lots of interest,” said Tom Ellacott, Senior Vice President, Corporate Research at Wood Mackenzie, speaking on the same podcast.
The industry analyst has already estimated total recoverable reserves in the 6.6 million acres Stabroek Block to be more than 4 billion barrels of oil and expects daily production to hit 700,000 barrels by 2027.
