Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, emphasized that the recent updates to petroleum legislation and the introduction of new model Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) will not impact ExxonMobil and its Stabroek Block Operations. However, he underlined the incorporation of essential best practices from these updates, which will be advocated for during the field development process of Exxon’s sixth project, the Whiptail Project.
He was at the time responding to questions fielded by journalists as to whether the recent legal and contract updates would apply to Exxon’s license for the project, except for fiscal terms.
Alistair Routledge, President of ExxonMobil Guyana, recently unveiled the company’s plan to submit a Field Development Plan for its Uaru project by October. Routledge emphasized ExxonMobil’s substantial investments in Guyana, particularly in the Stabroek Block, noting that the company’s sanctioned developments, combined with the Whiptail Project, represent an impressive investment exceeding US$40 billion, significantly surpassing the government’s annual budget.
This comprehensive endeavor will encompass drilling approximately 33 to 72 development wells, installation and operation of Subsea, Umbilicals, Risers, and Flowlines (SURF) equipment, installation and operation of a Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, and ultimately, project decommissioning.
The FPSO is designed to accommodate an annual average capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil per day (BPD) and can store approximately 2 million barrels of stabilized crude oil. Importantly, the project plans to generate between 400 million and 640 million standard cubic feet of gas daily, with a substantial portion reinjected into the wells, and only a fraction utilized as fuel.
The project aims for full operational readiness by 2027, with production activities slated to commence in late 2027 or 2028, spanning a minimum duration of two years.
ExxonMobil and its partners have already initiated five developments, with the Liza Unity and Liza Destiny vessels currently producing an average of 400,000 barrels per day. The upcoming Payara development is scheduled to commence first oil production in the fourth quarter of 2023, while the Yellowtail development is projected to deliver first oil by 2025.
The Uaru field development project, the fifth project in the Stabroek Block, encompasses approximately ten drill centers and 44 production and injection wells. It aims to exploit an estimated resource of more than 800 million barrels of oil and is scheduled for production start-up in 2026, boasting a production capacity of nearly 250,000 gross barrels of oil per day (gbopd).
