“Like a race car Guyana’s oil boom blazes from 0 to 60 in seconds” – Exxon’s Senior Vice President

May 18, 2025 News

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…says, ‘we moved really fast and it’s not stopping anytime soon’

Kaieteur News- In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of ExxonMobil striking oil offshore Guyana in the prolific Stabroek Block, Hunter Farris, the oil giant’s Senior Vice President for Deepwater at ExxonMobil Upstream Company, in his address, underscored the pace at which Exxon was able to move its operations in Guyana.

Farris likened the pace to a race car. He said, “Like a race car that blazes from zero to 60 in just a few seconds, Guyana’s oil industry has ramped up – and ramped up safely, I’ll add – from zero barrels to 650,000 per day in the five-and-a-half years since we started.”

He added, “That’s really fast. And it’s not stopping anytime soon.”

The Stabroek Block, located about 120 miles offshore Guyana, spans 6.6 million acres and is estimated to hold 11.6 billion barrels of oil. ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) is the operator of the Stabroek Block, holding a 45% interest. The other co-venturers are Hess, which holds a 30% stake and CNOOC with a 25% interest.

Farris said that it is hard to wrap one’s head around the pace of change. He noted that risk paid off when oil was struck offshore Guyana on May 10, 2015. He noted, “It marked a world-class oil discovery, perhaps the most significant oil find anywhere on the planet in generations.”

By December 2019, the company commenced oil production offshore Guyana. Farris outlined that the short timeframe of less than five years moving from discovery to production is nearly unheard of in the oil and gas industry.

“On most deepwater developments, it typically takes twice as long to safely extract the first commercial barrels, and that assumes all goes well. We did it in half the normal time. The growth in production from Guyana’s waters has been just as rapid,” the Senior Vice President stated.

Currently, three Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, the Liza Destiny, Liza Unity, and Prosperity, are in production. The three active FPSOs collectively produce over 650,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from three developments: Liza Phase 1, Liza Phase 2 and Payara.

The oil companies have embarked on an aggressive drilling campaign in the Stabroek Block with three more approved developments to come onstream: Yellowtail, Uaru and Whiptail projects. This year, Exxon’s largest deep-water project to date in Guyana, Yellowtail, will commence oil production.

Notably, Exxon has already made applications for approval for a seventh and eighth development, namely Hammerhead and Longtail.

Moreover, Farris reiterated Exxon’s plan to hit 1.3 million bpd by 2027. “Or close to 500 million barrels per year. That daily figure should climb to 1.7 million barrels by 2030. All of this makes Guyana one of the largest oil producers per capita in the world,” he added.

The Exxon official noted that today, Guyana is considered a major global energy player with the world’s fastest-growing economy. He underscored that the historic find continues to reshape the world of energy just as it transforms daily life for many of the country’s 800,000 citizens. “The journey is just beginning – we’re proud of the past decade and excited to keep building Guyana’s energy future together,” he added.

Moreover, Exxon’s Senior VP noted that Guyana’s emergence on the world stage is not just economic, but also pointed to Guyana securing a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2023 and is playing a growing role in global energy security.

“Its cargoes of oil have shipped to Latin America, the U.S., Europe, and even countries in the Pacific Rim. Considering the global tumult of the past few years since the pandemic, that’s saying something,” Farris said.

Moreover, as a new decade begins, Farris highlighted that the partnership between Guyana and ExxonMobil has been extraordinarily successful and often exhilarating.

“The next 10 years and more should be just as exciting and fruitful. In the real-time story of Guyana’s progress and prosperity, the next chapter will cover our partnership, figuring ways to develop Guyana’s natural gas deposits. Gas development might be a further catalyst for building up 21st-century Guyana; the country’s gas discoveries could make Guyana a critical source of regional development,” Farris added.

In accordance with the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) that was signed by the previous APNU+AFC government with Exxon, the oil companies are allowed to recover 75% of the revenues generated from the Stabroek Block. That 75% is considered cost oil. The remaining 25% is considered profit oil, which is shared 50/50 between Guyana and the oil companies, equating to 12.5% of the operation’s profits.

Earlier this year, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told Reuters that the ExxonMobil-led consortium operating offshore Guyana in the Stabroek Block has recovered a whopping US$33.9 billion by the end of January from Guyana’s oil.

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