The impoverished South American country of Guyana is emerging as a major international oil producer and exporter. The former British colony is expected to become not only South America’s top oil producer but a key driver of world petroleum supply growth. The country has also become one of the fastest growing economies in the region, according to the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank
The Cooperative Republic of Guyana opened a bidding round for 14 oil and gas blocks in its oil-rich offshore, hoping to award exploration contracts by the end of May. Guyana has become home to one of the largest oil discoveries in the last decade, with about 11 billion barrels of oil and gas found by a consortium led by Exxon Mobil.
Venezuela’s foreign ministry on Tuesday described as “interventionist and disrespectful” U.S. comments on a weekend incident in which the country’s navy stopped two ships exploring for oil for Exxon Mobil off Guyana’s coast.
The Norwegian oil and gas research firm Rystad Energy is predicting that Guyana's oil sector could generate annual revenue of US$15 billion and that the government would pocket most of the profit generated from the explorations.
Exxon Mobil said that it has discovered additional oil in the Payara reservoir offshore Guyana, increasing the total discovery to approximately 500 million barrels oil equivalent. The result increases the estimated recoverable resources in Guyana’s Stabroek Block formation to about 2.25 to 2.75 billion barrels. By way of comparison, the much-heralded Thunder Horse find in the Gulf of Mexico has reserves of about one billion barrels.
ExxonMobil’s oil finding streaking offshore Guyana is continuing, with the company reporting yesterday that it has struck oil again. It is Exxon’s third such find in the Stabroek Block and the second this year, coming on the heels of oil discoveries in Liza in 2015 and Payara in January.
United States oil giant Exxon Mobil Corporation is moving full steam ahead with plans to transform Guyana, in the north of South America, into a major oil producer. In what industry experts call a rare occurrence in the industry, Exxon Mobil has asked the David Granger administration for a production license to start pumping oil from the country’s seabed, less than five years after it discovered major oil finds.
The Guyana government intends to establish an onshore oil and gas facility in the country as it seeks to fully optimize opportunities in petroleum exploration and production. The Ministry of Natural Resources, working in conjunction with the Ministries of Public Infrastructure and Business, says it believes that this facility is critical and said it is part of the raft of measures intended to ensure that Guyana keeps on the right trajectory in the development of the oil and gas industry.
ExxonMobil and its partner Hess Corp. have announced that the major discovery off the coast of Guyana, in the north of South America and bordering with Venezuela, is a discovery that is much larger than previously expected.