Exxon Mobil Corp on Thursday announced a discovery at Pinktail in Guyana’s offshore Stabroek Block. This followed an earlier discovery at Whiptail in the 6.6-million-acre block announced in July. Exxon did not disclose the size of the latest discovery but noting that it would add to the previous recoverable resource estimate of over 9 million barrels of oil and gas.
Exxon has made at least 20 discoveries in Stabroek. It operates the block as part of a consortium, which includes CNOOC and Hess Corp. The project currently produces 120,000 bpd of crude oil from the Liza Destiny floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) platform. It expects to start up Liza’s phase 2 in early 2022. The new FPSO vessel, called the Liza Unity, is expected to sail from Singapore to Guyana in late August 2021. The Liza Unity will be capable of producing 220,000 bpd of oil.
The consortium’s third Stabroek project, called the Payara project, is expected to start up in 2024, with the arrival of the third FPSO vessel, the Liza Prosperity. Hess CEO John Hess said the Stabroek block is expected to pump at least 1 million bpd through six FPSOs by 2027. Exxon plans to submit a development proposal for its fourth Guyana project, Yellowtail, later this year. The plan is expected to receive the government’s approval by the end of this year.
