Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dutch-shipbuilder SBM Offshore, Øivind Tangen believes that the pace at which Guyana’s oil industry has moved from discovery to a “plateau production” has been an eye-opener for other countries in the petroleum industry.
During a recently aired interview with CEO at Sagacity & Content Manager at OilNOW, Christopher Chapwanya, Tangen highlighted how Guyana’s swift progress, largely driven by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL), the operator of the prolific Stabroek Block, has set a new benchmark for others. He said, “So I think the pace setting here has been an eye opener to many other countries that may have recently discovered, you know, resources, or even countries that are mature.”
Tangen underscored that Guyana’s oil sector pace shows other industry players that there is a different way of doing things that could dramatically improve the time between discovery and first oil. He also noted that companies may want to rethink the way they approach field development planning. Tangen said Guyana can be, “a reference for other companies to say, you know, the traditional way of doing field development, you know, it may be time to look at that and be open minded, to change the pace.”
SBM is the contractor for four of Exxon’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels for work in the Stabroek Block. Three of the FPSOs – Destiny, Unity, and Prosperity – are currently operating offshore, with the fourth SBM vessel (FPSO One Guyana) set to join next year.
Tangen underscored that Exxon and the Government of Guyana’s pace aligns with SBM’s Fast4Ward program. “…Exxon and the Government of Guyana, has allowed the kind of a perfect combination of parameters coming together that has been very powerful, of course, from marketing and the positioning of SBM into the other growth markets in the oil and gas…” he said.
He explained that the Fast4Ward design allows SBM to optimize its FPSO units. “So for us, you know, we believe in the Fast4Ward because we believe in the product, the FPSO product we get through that and the execution certainty in the way we can manage capacity, and the way we can do EPC faster, than any of our competitors,” Tangen added.
Notably, FPSOs Unity and Prosperity were built with the Fast4Ward design, and the same is being done for FPSO One Guyana.
