The Liza Destiny, Guyana’s first Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, is expected to kick start oil production in the first quarter of 2020. By that time, Hess Corporation will move from an investment phase to a free cash flow generation phase says the John Hess, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director of the firm.
The CEO also noted that Guyana will see its second FPSO in 2022 and an additional FPSO each year thereafter through 2025. Guyana Standard understands that the second FPSO will be in the Turbot area and will produce approximately 220,000 barrels of oil per day. The third FPSO will be for the Payara field.
Further to this, Hess reminded that his company has a 30 percent interest in the ExxonMobil-operated Stabroek Block, which is equivalent in size to 1,150 Deepwater Gulf of Mexico blocks. He recalled, too, that Exxon made 13 significant discoveries since 2015 with the gross discovered resources now pegged to be greater than six billion barrels of oil equivalent reserves.
The official said, “And we continue to see multibillion barrels of future exploration potential remaining…Our Guyana discoveries are some of the industry’s largest of the past decade. The reservoirs rank among the highest quality in the world, with high porosity and permeability that are expected to deliver very high recovery factors and production rates.”
Also, since the producing horizons are relatively shallow, Hess said that the wells can be drilled in approximately one third of the time and cost of those in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the CEO said that development is set to occur at what is expected to be “the bottom of the offshore cost cycle.”
Finally, the Director said that ExxonMobil, as the operator, is one of the most experienced project managers in the world, which significantly reduces execution risk thereby making Guyana a transformational investment opportunity for Hess and its shareholders.
