With Guyana’s Stabroek Block being such a resource dense concession, ExxonMobil Guyana and its partners see great potential for tie-backs that could lengthen the lifespan of varying projects.
This was noted by Chief Executive Officer (CEO), John Hess during the Bank of America Securities 2022 Global Energy Conference. He acknowledged that when the partners sanctioned the four projects; Liza Phase One, Liza Phase Two, Payara, and Yellowtail, they were “pretty conservative” about the resource estimate for each development.
“For smaller ships, you need at least about 600 million barrels to back them up and the bigger ones, it is closer to 900 million barrels like Yellowtail, for example, but that does not include a lot of exploration prospects that surround or are related to the development. These are not in the base case,” expressed Hess. “People always talk about the tie back to infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico but there is a lot of tie-back potential in Guyana too because it is a very resource-dense province.”
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The Hess Chief was keen to remind that it will take the partners 10 ships to produce the discovered resource of about 11 billion barrels of oil-equivalent. He said there is already visibility on the potential locations for the seventh and eighth FPSO. Hess said it is therefore a mere matter of getting these projects properly engineered and sanctioned. More details, he said, will be provided to investors after those areas have been properly addressed.
In the meantime, Hess said Guyana remains key to his company’s portfolio, adding that it is one of the prime pieces of oil real estate of the decade.
Hess also stated that Guyana’s rich resources could help to offset the shrinking visibility of its Bakken asset. The company has a 15-year life cycle with the Bakken while its competitors in the shale business have a 10-year outlook. He said the company’s Bakken asset will soon plateau at 200,000 barrels of oil per day using four rigs which optimise returns. Hess said Bakken will remain a cash engine, however, Guyana is set to take the leading post in its portfolio.
