Guyana is poised to be a regional oil and gas hub that will be a source for expertise and support in the industry if it continues its tangible advancements and efforts to build capacity and local content.
This was the view of Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) Production Manager Mike Ryan. During the recent commissioning of ChampionX Storage Facility, he praised the tangible improvements being made in Guyana which have seen more and more supply-chain services moving from Trinidad to Guyana.
“With continued progress and a focused long-term strategic and collaborative approach, Guyana can become a regional source for expertise and support in the oil and gas industry,” Ryan informed the attendees.
“This is a significant step in our bid to advance local content development by ensuring that the people of Guyana are integrally involved as we continue to develop the country’s resources,” he said.
Ryan noted that the training and capacity building conducted by ExxonMobil’s primary contractors, of which ChampionX is one, is having a transformational impact on Guyana’s local content.
“I am confident as the ChampionX team grows with the local workforce, more Guyanese will see the benefits of the growing industry on both an economic and personal level. The ripple effect of this base being here will extend to utilising more local services and more local hires.
“With most of the major international companies contracted by ExxonMobil Guyana already having a presence in-country, the steady move of activities and services here forms part of our long-term development plans for oil and gas and local content,” Ryan said.
ChampionX is headquartered in Texas, USA. The company has over 6000 employees and specialises in chemical technologies, artificial lift technologies, drilling technologies and automation and optimisation.
ExxonMobil, which has largely sourced services from neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago for its operations in Guyana since it started exploration activities here, has said that with the strides Guyana has made to build capacity, virtually all of these services were likely to be sourced locally by 2022 as more and more prime contractors set up shop in Guyana.
Among these prime contractors are Halliburton – a US-based oilfield contractor that has been providing a range of drilling services to Exxon; Saipem – which has been providing installation services for Exxon’s Liza Phase 2 and TechnipFMC, which is in charge of installing the subsea system for the Payara oil field – Exxon’s third development in Guyana’s waters.
EEPGL is Exxon’s local subsidiary. It is the operator and holds 45 per cent interest in the Stabroek Block, while Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd holds 30 per cent interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds the remaining 25 per cent interest.
Over in the Kaieteur Block, Exxon is the operator with a 35 per cent stake while Ratio owns 25 per cent. Cataleya Energy and Hess each also own a 20 per cent stake in the Kaieteur Block, while Westmount Energy owns stakes in Ratio (0.7 per cent) and Cataleya (5.4 per cent).
Meanwhile, Exxon also holds a 35 per cent stake in the Canje Block, where it is also the operator. The oil giant’s co-venturers in the Canje Block are Total, JHI Associates Incorporated, and Mid-Atlantic Oil and Gas.
ExxonMobil has said it anticipated that at least six projects offshore Guyana would be online by 2027. A fourth project, Yellowtail, has been identified within the Block with anticipated start-up in late 2025 pending Government approvals and project sanctioning. This project will develop the Yellowtail and Redtail fields, which are located about 19 miles (30 kilometres) southeast of the Liza developments.
The start-up of Liza Phase 2 remains on target for 2022, as the Liza Unity FPSO prepares to sail from Singapore to Guyana later this year. The Unity FPSO has a production capacity of 220,000 barrels of oil per day at peak rates. The hull for the Prosperity FPSO vessel, the third project at the Payara Field, is complete, and topsides construction activities have commenced in Singapore with a start-up target of 2024.
