The prospects of another oil discovery is possible as ExxonMobil has announced plans to drill another well dubbed Long Tail which was spud by one of its drill ships.
US oil giant ExxonMobil has so far experienced great exploration success in Guyana with seven previous discoveries which include: Liza, Liza Deep, Payara, Pacora, Snoek, Ranger, and Turbot.
Senior Director, Public and Government Affairs at Exxon Mobil, Kimberly Brasington told Inews today (Tuesday) that in the oil exploration business, the percentage of success is one in every five or one in every 10 wells drilled.
However, she noted that in Guyana’s case the successes have far outweighed the failures.
“…and here we are, we have 11 out of 13 wells…So that’s an important point to make…and so while our last well wasn’t successful, wasn’t hydrocarbon, we’re gonna learn so much from that,” she explained.
Brasington said with more discoveries there is now a greater chance for Guyana to earn more as the first prediction was that 100,000 barrels of oil could be produced each day, but that figure has increased slightly based on new discoveries.
“…and then we said Liza Phase Two, we expect would double that. We expect it’d be about 220,000 barrels per day for Liza Phase Two so if Liza Phase Two comes on stream in 2022, which is the estimate, so in 2022, you have Phase One and Phase Two, both producing, so now you’re left with a 350,000 barrels per day,” she noted.
The Exxon official says it does not stop there as a third boat could potentially produce for Payara and Pacora, among others by 2024.
First oil from the giant Liza field is expected by 2020 and multiple developments will see production increasing to 500,000 bpd by 2025.
“So it just continues to increase but a couple of things have to fall in place. One, we have to discover that the oil is there. That’s one thing and get our best estimate as to how much we think is there and then it’s designing that development option that’s gonna best develop it, get it out of the ground,” she said.
ExxonMobil said the Stena Carron drillship will continue to explore and evaluate other areas of the block.
The Stena Carron is currently drilling the Liza 5 well, followed by Long Tail.
ExxonMobil Guyana, as operator, in partnership with Hess and CNOOC Nexen, has discovered more than 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the 6.6 million acres Stabroek Block. (Samuel Sukhnandan)
