According to its 2024 annual report, Hess Corporation plans to return 94% of its net undeveloped acreage, primarily to Guyana and Suriname, over the next three years.
In Guyana, Hess has a 30% stake in the 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block. A relinquishment of 20% of the block is due, minus exploration and production acreage, as well as a section under force majeure due to a territorial row with Venezuela. The relinquishment is pending approval, Hess said in the report.
Then, in 2027, the Stabroek Block exploration agreement will expire, requiring the return of the block to the State, minus discovery and development areas. ExxonMobil, the operator, is taking the next few years to unlock the resources in the block and line up more projects. With 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels discovered and eight projects already on the cards, Hess maintained that there is potential for 10 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels operating simultaneously.
In Suriname, Hess has a 33% stake in Block 42 and a 100% operating stake in Block 59.
Block 42’s previous operator, Kosmos Energy, had drilled the Pontoenoe-1 well in 2018 and found no hydrocarbons before selling its interest and operatorship to Shell in 2020.
Shell drilled the Zanderij well in 2023, at Block 42. Greg Hill, Chief Operating Officer at Hess had said during a 2023 earnings conference that “the well demonstrated a working petroleum system and encountered oil pay.”
The discovery was not well publicized. Hill did not state the size of the discovery, only that the well results were being evaluated and further exploration activities are being considered.
Block 42 went into effect in 2011, according to Staatsolie.
At Block 59, which went into effect in 2018, Staatsolie lists no completed exploration wells at this block.
