Exxon will now be producing more oil, faster than planned

May 15, 2021 News

The Liza Unity FPSO arrives in Singapore earlier this year for topsides integration. The FPSO is destined for the ExxonMobil-operated Liza field development in Guyana. (Photo: SBM Offshore)

Kaieteur News – ExxonMobil in recent years had maintained that its projected estimated oil production from the Stabroek Block would be just about 750,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2026, but this has since been revised upwards.
As such, it would mean that the US oil major has brought forward its production levels schedule in Guyana, with an aim to now be producing more oil, faster than initially planned.
This is since the submissions for the company’s fourth oilfield development in the block—Yellowtail—will see production numbers now being pegged at about 800,000 bpd at the end of 2025 when that field is expected to see first oil at a nameplate capacity of 250,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The Liza Destiny, currently producing in the Stabroek Block has a nameplate capacity of 120,000 bpd while the Liza Unity, which is slated to arrive in Guyana, next month is billed at 220,000.
This would bring Guyana’s total production capacity to 330,000 bpd by the end of the year.
With the coming on stream of the Payara development, using the Prosperity, Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, production in country would be boosted by another 220,000 bpd.
This would bring the country’s capacity to 550,000 bpd when that comes online in 2024.
With the Yellowtail development now disclosed at a capacity of 250,000 bpd and first oil set for the end of 2025, it would bring the country’s daily production capacity 800,000.
The Liza Destiny—pending re-installation of its repaired flash gas compressor—will be running at above nameplate capacity at 130,000 bpd or 10,000 bpd more, which collectively would account for likely 810,000 bpd being produced at the end of 2025, by the ExxonMobil led consortium.
The revelations come on the heels of similarly revealing information with regards production capacity when Hess Corporation’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Greg Hill, during the company’s first quarter earnings call for shareholders disclosed that all of the FPSOs in the Stabroek Block would be running above nameplate capacity.
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.”
Hill told shareholders the exercise can be expected on each of the FPSO’s operating in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and posited, “…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 bottle necks 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 insisted at the time, that with the debottlenecking exercise, “there’s nothing remarkable, there’s piping changes etcetera, just to eliminate [and] reduce deflection, flowing through the facility on the topsides.”

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