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Exxon now racing to pump 1.2 million barrels per day by 2025 – Hess Boss reveals
Kaieteur News – About three years ago, ExxonMobil and its partners, Hess Corporation and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana, had told the local and international market that they would be using five ships to pump 750,000 barrels of oil from the Stabroek Block. They had said this would be accomplished by 2026, latest.
CEO of Hess Corporation, John Hess
Today, those figures have increased significantly. Head of Hess Corporation, John Hess has revealed that ExxonMobil is now racing to produce up to 1.2 million barrels of oil from the Stabroek Block. Even the timeline has shortened as the CEO noted that this would be achieved by 2025 via five oil projects. They are the Liza Phase One, Liza Phase Two, Payara, Yellowtail, and Uaru/Mako.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) made this disclosure during his recent participation in J.P. Morgan’s 2021 Energy, Power and Renewables Conference that was held virtually on Wednesday. Also participating on the call was Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Hess Corporation, Greg Hill.
In providing the international audience with an update on the plans for productive capacity for the Guyana operations, Hill was keen to note that the Liza Phase One Project is already operating at nameplate capacity; in other words, it is producing 120,000 barrels of oil per day. This is taking place while the Liza Destiny’s flash gas compressor is undergoing performance testing before being operational by next month. Kaieteur News would have reported some months ago, that the flash gas compressor had experienced several mechanical issues which led to it being removed and sent overseas for repairs. As a result of the faulty compressor system, Exxon has burnt more than 14 billion cubic feet of gas which has released more than 250 toxic chemicals into Guyana’s airspace.
Once the upgraded equipment is up and running, Hill noted that the capacity of the Liza Destiny will increase to 130,000 barrels of oil per day. He said that another capacity increase will soon follow when the vessel goes for a two week shut down in November for the installation of a new flash gas compressor system. Once this is done, the Liza Destiny would be able to produce between 140,000 barrels of oil to 150,000.
With respect to future projects, he said once they spend about a year in operation, each ship will undergo an optimization or debottlenecking exercise which would see capacity increase between 10 to 15 percent.
Adding to his colleague’s disclosure, the Hess CEO said, “And when you helicopter down you can have five ships by 2025 producing in excess of one million barrels a day and that number used to be at 750,000 barrels, so it gives you an idea of the quality of the reserves and the producibility of the wells.”
Hess even revealed, that ExxonMobil had told its investors that it plans to increase the capacity to have 1.2 million barrels being pumped out of the Stabroek Block in five years by way of five ships.
He also noted, that the Stabroek Block partners are currently going through several regulatory processes to ensure the Yellowtail project gets the approval it needs. The Hess boss confidently noted that he had met with the government in May, specifically, President, Dr. Irfaan Ali and he is confident from that engagement, that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration is desirous of having Yellowtail stay on track for first oil by 2025. Hess noted that the approval is expected by year end latest.
Once everything comes on stream, Yellowtail will be producing up to 250,000 barrels of oil per day in 2025.
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