Three months of ramped up oil production in Guyana puts more money in pockets of ExxonMobil's shareholders - CEO

Three months of ramped up oil production in Guyana puts more money in pockets of ExxonMobil’s shareholders – CEO

May 08, 2024 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

CEO, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Darren Woods

Kaieteur News – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM), Darren Woods recently told shareholders of the company that it was able to deliver “unprecedented success” in Guyana from the country’s ramped up oil production during the first three months of 2024.

This enabled Exxon to return more profits to the pockets of the oil giant’s shareholders, Woods said during the company’s first quarter Earnings Call. During his opening remarks, the CEO of the Fortune 500 company said, “In the quarter, we continued to deliver unprecedented success in Guyana with growing production creating additional value for our shareholders and the Guyanese people.”

He continued, “Our strategic projects, which are another important driver of our planned earnings improvement, helped deliver record first-quarter refining throughput and strong performance chemicals volume growth.”

The CEO was keen to highlight that Exxon also has more projects planned for startup in 2025. During the first quarter of the year, ExxonMobil made US$8.2B in profits and $14.7 billion of cash flow. Exxon’s subsidiary that operates Guyana’s oil rich Stabroek Block currently has three Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels producing above the respective safety limits.

Presently, Liza One and Liza Two are producing about 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 250,000 bpd respectively. The Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) each specifically outline 120,000 and 220,000 bpd, as the safe operating limit for Liza One and Two, respectively. Similarly, the third oil project- Payara- is also producing approximately 230,000 bpd even though the vessel’s nameplate capacity is 220,000 bpd. Be that as it may, EMGL is planning to further ramp up its daily production at the Liza Two project.

During a press engagement, the President of ExxonMobil Guyana revealed, “Part of the Unity shutdown is actually going to include some additional debottlenecking work where we think maybe we could produce above 252,000 barrels per day. Studies have demonstrated that that could be done, so in that shut down period where we are installing the riser we will also be doing some additional modifications, some other planned maintenance work that we would have done a little later that we’ve accelerated forward for integrity activity so there is other work in that shutdown that will hopefully be beneficial also to the production capacity.”

Notably, Exxon also plans to mirror the Liza Unity production at the Payara development. “We anticipate in a next month or two, hopefully we’ll complete those reviews and if that’s satisfactory then we’ll make that adjustment,” Routledge disclosed.

He reported that the reservoirs at the Payara project were performing exceptionally well encouraging the company to increase the capacity of the wells. Even though experts argue that the risk of an oil spill is increased with the acceleration of daily production activities, the company is reluctant to provide the country with an unlimited parent company guarantee that protects this country from the liabilities associated with a disastrous spill. Presently, Guyana has been assured of a US$600 million insurance policy per oil spill event and a US$2B guarantee.