ExxonMobil’s next development offshore Guyana, the Longtail project, is being designed to operate for three decades, making it the company’s longest-running production venture in the Stabroek Block.
During an interview with the Starting Point – The Oil and Gas edition podcast, President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge, said Longtail will produce gas and condensate, a lighter and more refined hydrocarbon than the black crude currently being extracted. “We are moving from black oil projects to a non-associated gas field. The largest part of the resource in the reservoir is gas,” he explained.
The project is expected to produce around one billion cubic feet of gas per day and 250,000 barrels of condensate. “Condensate is not like oil. It is a clear liquid almost in a sample bottle looks like water or alcohol,” Routledge said. “It should attract a premium because this is the lighter end of what exists in petroleum crudes.”
He noted that refineries use condensate to produce higher-end fuels such as gasoline and jet fuel. “When you take a condensate and put it through a refinery, you really take more of the premium products out of the petroleum cut.”
He said Longtail’s 30-year lifespan comes from the slower pace of gas production and the recycling of gas to recover as much condensate as possible. “Gas fields typically take longer to produce the resource, particularly when they have these levels of liquids, because you really want to recycle the gas as much as possible in order to lift the condensate,” Routledge explained.
“We take all that gas, we use some for fuel, and then we’ll reinject that gas into the reservoir,” he added. “It has two benefits: to maintain the pressure in the reservoir and to sweep that gas through the reservoir and pick up as much of the condensate as we can economically produce.”
The project, estimated to cost around US$12.5 billion, will connect to other offshore facilities and the Gas-to-Energy pipeline, allowing for domestic gas use as the market develops. “We do anticipate that we will connect the Longtail field to other assets in the Stabroek Block, and indeed to the gas energy pipeline, so that insofar as there is gas available and there is a gas market, we can feed Longtail gas into that as well,” Routledge said.
If approved, Longtail will add a new dimension to Guyana’s offshore production.
