Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:40 AM
ExxonMobil to run all production ships in Guyana above nameplate capacity — Hess Corp
Hess Corporation CEO, John Hess
Kaieteur News – Stabroek Block operator, ExxonMobil Guyana, is gearing to run each of the 10 planned Floating Production, Storage, Production and Offloading (FPSO) vessels above its full capacity with the second ship to arrive in the second half of this year.
The revelation was made on Wednesday by the ExxonMobil Stabroek Block partner, Hess Corporation’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Greg Hill, during the company’s first quarter earnings call for shareholders.
He was at the time speaking to planned activities this year to push the Liza Destiny FPSO, beyond its nameplate capacity of 120,000 barrels per day through “debottlenecking.”
Greg Hill
Hill told shareholders the exercise can be expected on each of the FPSO’s operating in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone and posited, “I think you can assume that there would be a debottlenecking potential on all those ships.”
He explained the debottlenecking exercise to say “what typically happens is you’ll bring these facilities up to their nameplate and then you’ll gather a lot of dynamic data, and you really need that data, so you need fluids running through the facility at full capacity to determine where are my pinch points, where are my bottlenecks and what can I do to increase that capacity.”
He suggested, “that’s why you typically see these debottlenecking projects, occur years after that operating experience on the vessel, because the key piece of data that you need to have on that vessel is the dynamic data of how’s that vessel really operating.”
According to Hill, “I think you can expect every one of those [FPSO] will get debottlenecked above their nameplate in the future.”
The Hess Corp COO insists, “…there’s nothing remarkable, there’s piping changes et cetera, just to eliminate [and] reduce deflection flowing through the facility on the topsides.”
As it relates to the second FPSO destined for the Stabroek Block, Hess Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer, John Hess, in providing an update said, the Liza Unity with a production capacity of 220,000 gross barrels of oil per day is preparing to sail from the Keppel Yard in Singapore to Guyana mid-year.”
According to Hess, the Liza Phase Two project is progressing to plan “with about 90 percent of the overall work completed and first oil remains on track for early 2022.”
With regard to plans for the year, it was noted that the third oil development on the Stabroek Block at the Payara Field, is expected to achieve first oil in 2024—also with the capacity of 220,000 gross barrels of oil per day.
He noted too that, “we’re nearing work for Yellowtail; a fourth development on the Stabroek Block is underway with anticipated startup in 2025, pending government approvals and project sanctions.”
According to the Hess Corp CEO, “we continue to see the potential for at least six FPSOs on the block by 2027.”
He reiterated that in the longer term the partners are looking to have up to 10 FPSOs to develop the discovered resources on the Block.
Chief Financial Officer, John Riley, in his interaction with stakeholders, disclosed that during the second quarter of this year, “we expect to sell two one-million barrel cargoes from Guyana, whereas we sold three one-million barrels of cargo in the first quarter.”
The CFO noted too “…we expect to sell five one-million barrel cargoes over the second half of the year.
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