Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat expects a significant increase in Guyana’s oil revenues in the years to come.
The Minister indicated this on Saturday after the Youth in Natural Resources opening ceremony, held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. “Liza [Destiny] will be the smallest [Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading] FPSO vessel, producing 120,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). We would have gotten a little over US$200 million on that one FPSO alone, [last year],” Bharrat is quoted by the Department of Public Information as saying.
“So, it means the larger one, of 220,000 bpd capacity, we should be getting US$400 million proceeds from one of the larger FPSOs.”
The Liza Unity and Prosperity FPSOs are each designed to safely operate at that level, and are expected to come onstream in 2022 and 2024 respectively. Minister Bharrat explained that by 2025, Government is looking to make over US$1 billion a year from the sale of Guyana’s produced crude of about 560,000 bpd. The Government expects that figure to increase even more in the following years.
“By 2027, we are hoping with seven FPSOs at least, that we will produce either close or even over a million barrels per day. That would augur well for Guyana. It means more direct proceeds from the oil and gas industry will be coming in.”
Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has said that the PPP/C Government wants ExxonMobil to produce oil as quickly as possible. Dr Jagdeo has said that Guyana should capitalise on the industry’s potential before the global transition to renewable energy sources drives oil prices down.
ExxonMobil has optimistic production plans, in keeping with the PPP/C Government’s aggressive depletion policy.
The company’s Global Vice President of Deepwater Projects, Jayme Meier said in December that ExxonMobil intends to have five FPSOs in operation by 2026, with more than 750,000 barrels produced per day, and sees potential for a total of 7-10 FPSOs later on.
Chief Operating Officer of Hess Corporation, Gregory Hill said in January that ExxonMobil intends to seek Government’s approval for the fourth FPSO by year-end, to produce oil at the Yellowtail project.
ExxonMobil is already mulling its fifth project, Hill revealed in January, with the Mako-Uaru area a likely target.
