Darren Woods, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of ExxonMobil, says the Yellowtail project could begin production in the third quarter of 2025.
During Exxon’s 2024 earnings call, Woods said, “the team managing the Guyana development continues to demonstrate project after project that you just find new ways to innovate and to overcome the challenges and deliver these things below budget oftentimes and certainly ahead of schedule.”
He said that Q3 ‘25 is “a good number, a good date to be thinking about.”
John Hess of Hess Corporation stated in early January that the Yellowtail development is approximately 95% complete.
The Yellowtail project will target 250,000 barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil production. This design rate is the highest for Exxon in Guyana, tied with Uaru and Whiptail, which will follow in 2026-2028. Liza 2 and Payara had started with design rates of 220,000 b/d, but were later optimized to 250,000 b/d.
The addition of the Yellowtail project will raise ExxonMobil’s total production capacity in Guyana above 900,000 b/d. It will make Guyana the world’s largest per capita producer of crude oil.
Production offshore the South American country has already shot up to 650,000 b/d in 2024, from first production in December 2019. Woods described what Exxon has achieved in Guyana as “not just profitable growth for ExxonMobil, but rapidly rising living standards for the Guyanese people, with GDP per capita more than tripling since we started production in 2020.”
All of Exxon’s projects are located in the Stabroek Block, where it has discovered over 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels. Exxon is the operator of the block with a 45% stake, while Hess has 30% and CNOOC has 25%.
