HOUSTON, Texas – ExxonMobil Friday said its operations in Guyana continue to deliver results never before seen in its industry and have set new standards for operational excellence.
The US-oil and energy giant said gross production reached roughly 875,000 barrels daily in the fourth quarter, with first four floating production storage and offloading units producing 100,000 barrels per day above investment basis.
“Our most recent project, Yellowtail, came online ahead of schedule, raising gross production in the fourth quarter to roughly 875,000 barrels per day. Altogether, our first four FPSOs are now producing 100,000 barrels a day above the investment basis, reflecting operational performance to date and the value of this advantaged asset,” ExxonMobil chairman and chief executive officer, Darren Woods told the company’s 2025 fourth quarter earnings call.
Woods said the company had the technological capabilities needed to extract Venezuela’s high-cost heavy crude, but made no new commitments to evaluate reentering the Central American country where the United States earlier this month toppled its leader, Nicolas Maduro, and charged with him drug related charges in a New York federal court.
Following the invasion, President Donald Trump has urged US companies to invest in the country so as to revive the oil industry.
Woods said ExxonMobil is considering exploration in the Stabroek Block nearer the border with Venezuela if there would be less military presence there.
“Obviously, with the developments in Venezuela, perhaps we’ll see an opportunity to, with less naval patrols, that’ll make it a little more friendly environment. So we’ll see how that goes, but we’ve got plenty of work ahead of us here,” said Woods, who had earlier said that the company had recovered “a substantial amount” of the money it was owed after its Venezuelan assets were nationalized in 2007.
The Venezuelan navy had over the years chased out two seismic research vessels from Atlantic waters off the Essequibo Region. The first occurred in 2013 when the MV Teknik Perdana was detained while doing work in the Roraima Block for the United States-based Anadarko Petroleum. This was followed by a similar incident in 2018 involving the MV Ramform Tethys vessel, which belongs to Norwegian company Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS), that was doing work for ExxonMobil.
Responding to a question from a representative of the investment banking company, Morgan Stanley, Woods said despite the force majeure- suspension of activities because of security risks- he was very hopeful of being able to begin work there.
He also indicated that ExxonMobil was preparing its plans to eventually explore for hydrocarbons in that area.
“In the short term and in the longer term, we’ll get into that additional acreage and see what the opportunity looks like. We’re pretty optimistic. I think one of the advantages of force majeure is it pauses the clock, and so we will have an opportunity to do what we need to do in that portion of the block when it’s available to us,” Woods said.
“We still think there’s opportunity in that space to explore in the block that we can currently access,” he added.
Looking ahead, he described the eventual ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award that settled the land boundary between Guyana and Venezuela as a “critical milestone” for deciding on the company’s future work in the Stabroek Block off the Essequibo Region.
“The portion of the block that’s under force majeure as a result of the border dispute remains there, and I think, from my perspective, one of the unlocks with respect to that region will be the ruling that comes out of the International Court of Justice, that’s the process that Guyana has been going through with Venezuela to align on the border, to resolve the border dispute,” he said.
With the exploration licence for the Stabroek Block scheduled to expire in late 2027, Woods said the company was studying its seismic data and learning from the development wells to identify additional targets and drill.
He said the company would have to relinquish “pieces” of the Stabroek Block based on a very well-inform understanding of the geology and the opportunity sets.
During the 2025 fourth quarter earnings call, Woods said that 2025 was a year of exceptional execution and technology-driven differentiation for the oil and energy giant.
“ We continue to deliver strong safety and reliability performance, reflecting the commitment and operating discipline of our workforce. We’ve already achieved our 2030 emission reduction plans for GHG emissions and flaring intensity.
“As of 2025, we’ve reduced our corporate GHG (green house gasses) intensity by more than 20%, reduced upstream GHG intensity by more than 40 per cent, and reduced corporate flaring intensity by more than 60 per cent. We expect to reach our 2030 methane intensity reductions by the end of this year.”
Woods said that the fourth quarter and full-year 2025 financial results reaffirm that the company’s transformation is driving improved earnings power across a broad range of metrics.
“Over the past five years, our annualized shareholder return of 29 per cent has led the industry, supported by US$150 billion of distributions to shareholders during that period. “Earnings, cash flow, and return on capital employed remain among the strongest in the sector, with higher upstream earnings per barrel and structurally higher returns,” he added.
