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Exxon’s focus now is making US$$$ and not updating Guyana on total barrels found in new discoveries
Kaieteur News – Head of ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, Alistair Routledge said on Tuesday said his company is no longer focused on providing updates on the number of barrels added to its resource base following a rash of discoveries in 2022 and 2023.
ExxonMobil Guyana’s Head, Alistair Routledge
The Country Manager said Exxon is more concerned with developing and monetizing those resources already discovered which totals 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Routledge gave the foregoing response following questions from Kaieteur News during a press conference on Tuesday.
This newspaper previously reported that the company’s last resource count, dated April 26, 2022, declared the recoverable resource for the Stabroek Block at nearly 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels, following discoveries at the Barreleye-1, Patwa-1, and Lukanani-1 wells. However, since then, Exxon has announced seven more significant discoveries.
In 2022, Exxon announced four more discoveries at the Stabroek Block – at the Seabob-1 and Kiru-Kiru-1 wells in July of that year, followed by discoveries at the Sailfin-1 and Yarrow-1 wells in October. Moving into 2023, Exxon continued its successful exploration streak with discoveries at the Fangtooth SE, Lancetfish-1, and Lancetfish-2 wells. The Fangtooth SE well, particularly notable as an appraisal well of the Fangtooth-1 discovery, is part of consideration for ExxonMobil’s seventh Stabroek Block development.
Despite these advancements, ExxonMobil has maintained the same resource estimate.
Questioned on this, Routledge said the company’s focus is no longer on counting and announcing barrels added. “In the early days of exploring the basin, Guyana was a frontier basin years ago and everyone was excited about the discoveries. In the early days, there was a focus on resources and how big the basin might be and how many reservoirs have we penetrated,” said Routledge.
He added, “But that focus has shifted to, of that discovered resource, can we monetize it and move it forward into economic development, and that is where we move more and more into the appraisal mindset, and (determining) what are the development concepts and how do we manage costs down to be effective and ensure these are robust investments for the long term …”
Given the foregoing premise, Routledge said Exxon is no longer talking about discovered resources anymore. He said, “We are talking about developments and can we move the resource we found to date forward, what additional work needs to be done to reduce risks associated with that resource, do we need to find more in a particular area so we have sufficient energy density to make an economic project. So, we are not going to talk about that number going (forward). We are more focused on the projects.”
In terms of Guyana’s importance to his company and to a wider extent, the global energy market, Routledge said this is now greater than it was 10 years ago. He said Guyana has become a significant part of the low-emission energy equation for the world. Routledge said too that Guyana’s growing importance is also reflected in the surge in global partnerships taking place on the military, diplomatic and economic fronts. He said, “…I think it is a healthy thing that we see those kinds of collaborations, and hopefully, that will continue.”
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