Exxon plans to begin oil production from a second platform offshore Guyana next month, Reuters reported this week, citing an unnamed source familiar with the company's plans.
The second production facility would increase Guyana's oil output threefold to 340,000 bpd, the report noted, adding that a third production facility-a floating production, storage and offloading vessel-was under construction currently.
The news about the production boost comes a couple of weeks after the announcement of more discoveries off Guyana's shore.
Exxon struck high-quality oil and hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone reservoirs at the Fangtooth-1 and Lau Lau-1 wells in the block off Guyana, which continues to be one of the U.S. corporation's priority exploration and production areas for the next few years. The new production facility will pump oil from these two wells.
"Both discoveries increase our understanding of the resource, our continued confidence in the block's exploration potential, and our view that the many discoveries to date could result in up to 10 development projects," said Mike Cousins, senior vice president of exploration and new ventures at ExxonMobil.
This followed another new oil discovery announcement made last September, which was the 20th discovery since Exxon and its partner Hess Corp. began exploring in the Stabroek Block in Guyana, turning the tiny South American country into the newest star on the global oil map.
"We are happy to announce our 20th significant discovery on the Stabroek Block, which will add to the discovered recoverable resource estimate of more than 9 billion barrels of oil equivalent," Hess Corp CEO John Hess said in a statement.
With the two latest discoveries, recoverable reserves in the block have risen to some 10 billion barrels of oil. The partners in the Stabroek Block, which also include China's CNOOC, have so far made 28 significant discoveries in the area.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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