Guyana has already raked in almost US$150M from three oil lifts so far, with the fourth lift scheduled for later this year – all from the Liza 1 well, which is currently in production.
This was disclosed by Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat who, on Monday, announced that ExxonMobil has made its 18th oil discovery offshore Guyana at the Redtail exploration well.
Guyana is expected to significantly ramp up oil production in the coming years. According to Minister Bharrat, in addition to Liza 1, the Liza 2 well is expected to start production in early 2022 from the LIZA Unity Floating Production and Offloading Vessel (FPSO) with a capacity to produce up to 220,000 barrels of oil per day.
Additionally, he said that upon successful conclusion of the negotiations and approval, the Payara development will follow Liza 1 & 2 with Prosperity FPSO, also producing 220,000 barrels of oil.
“These significant discoveries in the new and emerging Oil and Gas Sector will provide the impetus to the Government’s effort to re-vitalise and re-capitalise the traditional productive sectors so that Guyanese can enjoy progress and contribute to wealth generation under the People’s Progressive Party administration,” Bharrat said.
Guyana started oil production ahead of schedule in the offshore Stabroek field in December 2019. Earlier in August, the third lift of Guyana’s Liza crude was loaded from the ExxonMobil-operated Stabroek block.
The ExxonMobil exploration programme continues to identify high-quality reservoirs in close proximity to previous discoveries. This, according to Minister Bharrat, “will play an integral part in our long-term growth plans which will bring significant value to Guyana’s Development.”
US oil giant, Exxon has estimated that there are eight billion barrels of recoverable reserves in the Stabroek Block, and until recently, it predicted that the country would produce 750,000 barrels of oil per day by 2025.
According to experts, 750,000 barrels of oil per day would make Guyana the fourth-largest oil producer in Latin America in current production growth, that would be behind Brazil, Mexico and Columbia.
In a couple of years, this would place Guyana as one of the largest sources of non-OPEC supplier.
The revenues from oil are expected to assist government in fast-tracking its development objectives which would see Guyanese enjoying a better quality of life.
