Exxon Makes Seventh Oil Discovery Offshore Guyana

ExxonMobil said on Wednesday that it had made its seventh oil discovery offshore Guyana, striking a high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoir that would be developed together with the other giant fields recently discovered in the area and would bring Guyana’s oil production to more than 500,000 bpd.

The latest exploration success by Exxon and its partners Hess and CNOOC Nexen came from the Pacora-1 exploration well, which is located some 4 miles west of the Payara-1 well, and follows previous discoveries on the Stabroek Block at Liza, Payara, Liza Deep, Snoek, Turbot, and Ranger.

Exxon is the operator and holds 45 percent of the Stabroek Block that covers 6.6 million acres, while Hess Guyana Exploration has 30 percent and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana owns the other 25-percent interest.

“This latest discovery further increases our confidence in developing this key area of the Stabroek Block,” Steve Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company, said in Exxon’s press release. “Pacora will be developed in conjunction with the giant Payara field, and along with other phases, will help bring Guyana production to more than 500,000 barrels per day,” Greenlee added.

Hess Corporation’s CEO John Hess also commented today on the latest discovery:

“The giant Payara field, which is planned as the third development offshore Guyana, will now include Pacora resources – increasing the size of the FPSO and bringing expected gross production from the first three phases of development to more than 500,000 barrels of oil per day.”

Last month, Exxon made its sixth discovery offshore Guyana since 2015.

In June last year, the U.S. supermajor made the final investment decision to proceed with the first phase of development of the Liza field, which is expected to cost just over US$4.4 billion. The Phase 1 development at Liza—one of the largest oil discoveries of the past decade—will include a subsea production system and a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel designed to produce up to 120,000 bpd, with production slated to begin by 2020, less than five years after the field was discovered.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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