GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Two United States-based oil and gas companies have expressed their support for Guyana’s energy sector and the country’s future socio-economic development.
CEO of Hess Corporation, John HessAs they addressed the 2023 International Energy Conference and Expo being held here under the theme “Harnessing Energy for Development” the senior officials of ExxonMobil and Hess Corporation, spoke of increased oil and gas production in the coming months.
Hess Corporation’s chief executive officer, John Hess, said he is pleased that the company has been able to contribute positively towards Guyana’s growing oil and gas sector and the development of the country as a whole.
Speaking on the topic the “Macro Oil and Gas Industry,” and an outlook for Guyana he predicted that the CARICOM country will play an important role in ensuring an orderly energy transition, noting that Guyana has a unique opportunity to be a role model for oil-producing countries, as well as developing countries around the world.
“Oil and gas will be needed for decades to come. I know President Biden [of the United States) talks that it will be a while, maybe 10 years. But at the end of the day, it’s going to be decades to come. And oil and gas are fundamental to ensure an affordable, just and secure energy transition,” Hess said.
While he praised the Guyana government on the transitioning to sustainable energy and the role oil and gas will be playing in Guyana’s future development, Hess echoed the call for much needed increased investment with regard to the energy sector, and the need for climate, energy and economic literacy.
He spoke of Guyana’s achievements in the oil and gas sector, noting the presence of over 11 million barrels of oil offshore Guyana, with more than 30 new discoveries since 2015.
“It is a remarkable achievement that the country is already producing more than 380,000 barrels per day of some of the highest value low carbon crude oil in the world, with a line of sight to be producing over 1.2 million barrels per day by 2027,” he said, adding that Guyana will become one of the largest crude oil producers in the world.
ExxonMobil’s Vice President Liam Mallon
Last December, the Guyana government and Hess Corporation announced an agreement for Hess to purchase high-quality carbon credits for a minimum of US$750 million between 2022 and 2032, directly from the government.
The agreement will support Guyana’s efforts to protect the country’s vast forests and provide capital to improve the lives of citizens through government investments as part of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030.
In his address to the conference, ExxonMobil’s Vice President (Upstream) Liam Mallon, said the oil and gas company, which is an operator in the Stabroek Block, has increased production by 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) and is targeting 400,000 bpd in the coming months.
Mallon said production has increased from name-plate capacity from 360,000 bpd to 380,000 bpd from the Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels (FPSOs), Unity and Destiny and that the increase in production is being undertaken “with exceptional safety and reliability”.
ExxonMobil plans to bring on stream in the coming months several more FPSOs for field developments. The first would be Prosperity to produce 220,000 bpd, One Guyana for Yellowtail (250,000 bpd) by the end of 2025, Uaru (250,000 bpd) , Whiptail (220,000 to 275,000 bpd) by 2027 and Fangtooth.
He told the delegates that the company is projecting total production of 1.2 million bpd by the end of 2027.
Mallon said since the first discovery in 2015, the Stabroek Block has delivered more than 30 discoveries at a virtually unprecedented rate compared to other parts of the world, making Guyana “a major new energy player.
“Personally, I have been in this industry too long, almost 40 years, and I have never in my career- and I think I have worked almost all over the world and almost on all of the mega project; I have never in my career seen anything quite like this,” he said.
The ExxonMobil official said with proven reserves of about 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent, it is the largest in the industry in the past 10 years even as exploration of Guyana’s “vast potential” continues.
Mallon estimates that more than 4,400 Guyanese are employed as a result of the oil sector.
