ExxonMobil has reaffirmed that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) remains a viable option for developing Guyana’s gas resources, even as the company focuses on projects that deliver greater value to the country.
Alistair Routledge, President of ExxonMobil Guyana, stated in a recent episode of the Starting Point – The Oil and Gas edition podcast that the company has never ruled out LNG as a development pathway. “LNG has never been removed from the table,” he said, explaining, “We keep our aperture open as far as gas development and how to maximize the value of the nation’s gas resource until we can finalize what are the investment opportunities that do deliver that highest value.”
Routledge stated that the company is examining how best to monetize gas from the southeast portion of the Stabroek Block, where extensive studies and appraisals are underway.
He said the reservoirs in this area are complex, with varying depths and gas-to-condensate ratios. “We really need to understand that and how they may be developed in order to then determine what sort of a gas market would they need or would they match with,” he stated.
Jagdeo says LNG remains a priority as Guyana moves to monetize its gas resources | OilNOW
Guyana, he noted, currently has no large-scale gas market. “The country has a market that uses cooking gas, bottled LPGs, but doesn’t have a methane market, a piped market, or large industrial uses as we see today.”
In evaluating development options, Routledge said ExxonMobil has considered both domestic use and export. “Exporting gas could be through a pipeline if you were near enough to another gas market or LNG,” he said. “LNG is really just creating the virtual pipeline, so you export the gas to established gas markets somewhere else.”
He said the company and the government are focused on ensuring the gas resource yields the greatest economic benefit for Guyana. “As we’ve looked at this with the government, we said what is the highest value proposition for the country,” Routledge noted.
“Using the country’s own energy resources, in this case gas, to support development of other industries, whether it’s more power generation, taking the nation’s bauxite resources and converting it into aluminum, or fertilizer for the agriculture sector, offers the country greater value.”
He said this is why ExxonMobil’s priority has been to support domestic development first. “It isn’t to say that we’ve taken export of gas, whether pipeline or LNG, off the table,” Routledge said. “It just means that we’re moving our focus to where we think we deliver the highest value.”
Guyana’s gas agenda includes several large-scale projects aimed at powering its energy transition and industrial growth. The Gas-to-Energy project at Wales on the West Bank Demerara will use gas piped from ExxonMobil’s offshore fields to fuel a 300-megawatt power plant and natural gas liquids facility.
Exxon’s Hammerhead project, its seventh Stabroek Block development, will produce around 150,000 barrels of oil per day and supply associated gas to the pipeline network.
Meanwhile, the Longtail development, the company’s first major non-associated gas project, is being designed to handle up to one billion cubic feet of gas per day and produce 250,000 barrels of condensate.
