Modifications to first 3 FPSOs increased daily production by 125,000 barrels – Dutch shipbuilder

Aug 11, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News – Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SBM Offshore, Øivind Tangen on Friday said that debottlenecking exercises on the first three Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel it supplied for ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) operations in the Stabroek block, has resulted in an increased daily production of 125,000 barrels of oil.

“Debottlenecking of processing facilities on our initial three FPSOs has increased production capacity by 125,000 barrels of oil per day,” Tangen said during the company’s second quarter earnings call. Debottlenecking is an exercise to increase a vessel output beyond the nameplate capacity.

To date, SBM has constructed four FPSOs for the Stabroek block operations, the Liza Destiny, Liza Unity, Prosperity and ONE GUYANA. Exxon had recruited the services of Japanese ship builder, MODEC, for its fifth FPSO, Errea Wittu and SBM was awarded a contract last year for the sixth FPSO, Jaguar.

SBM is retained on a 10-year Operations and Maintenance Enabling Agreement for each FPSO it supplied for Exxon’s operation here. The ONE GUYANA FPSO last week achieved first oil. With the addition of this fourth vessel, Exxon’s installed production capacity is now over 900,000 bpd – though production remains around 650,000 bpd – as the ONE GUYANA FPSO works to achieve its initial production target of 250,000 bpd.

The Prosperity FPSO began production in November 2023 and reached its nameplate capacity of 220,000 bpd within months. With subsequent modifications, Exxon was able to ramp up output to around 260,000 bpd. Similarly, in 2022, the Liza Unity vessel came online producing 220,000 bpd and was also optimised to 260,000 bpd. The Liza Destiny, Exxon’s first FPSO in Guyana, began production in December 2019 at 120,000 bpd and was later upgraded to 165,000 bpd.

SBM’s CEO outlined that the experience gained from debottlenecking of processing facilities has allowed for learning and data gathering. He said this allows SBM to continuously refine its value proposition and reinforce their ability to execute complex projects at pace and at scale.

This disclosure comes amidst concerns raised about Exxon’s debottlenecking exercises by Alliance for Change (AFC) member and former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams.

Dr. Adams recently reiterated his position that debottlenecking exercises are both dangerous and reckless. He contended that, at the current pace of operations, which he said is in violation of safety rules, there is a higher likelihood of an incident occurring.

His comments were in response to ExxonMobil Corporation’s chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Darren Woods, who said that the company’s strategy to maximise oil production beyond the nameplate capacity of the vessels operating in the Stabroek block will ultimately secure higher returns on the company’s investments in Guyana.

It was during ExxonMobil’s second-quarter earnings call when the CEO was asked to speak about EMGL’s debottlenecking efforts and how sustainable it is for the vessels operating at the Liza Phase 2 and Payara projects to continue producing above their nameplate capacities.

Woods first said that the company is focused on making sure that it maximises the value of its investment without compromising any of the necessary integrity and safety parameters. He noted that this is a consistent practice across all of Exxon’s global operations and credited the company’s focused technology organisation for playing a major role in those efforts.

However, Dr. Adams argued that while Exxon is taking care of its interest to produce as much oil as possible to maximise returns, he contended that the Government of Guyana continues to neglect its responsibility to ensure Exxon’s operations are done safely and in an environmentally sound manner.

He said that debottlenecking is a nonsensical term to confuse Guyanese and said that it is not part of Guyana’s environmental laws and regulations.  Dr. Adams explained, “it means is they’re making adjustment in equipment and the production rate etcetera.”

Dr. Adams highlighted that Exxon’s practice to make adjustments and push the vessels’ production capacity beyond their nameplate capacity is lawless. He outlined that the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) that took months and sometimes years to be evaluated and approved is the document that sets the production rate. He argued that no amount of debottlenecking could change what is outlined in the EIAs.

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• debottlenecking, Dutch shipbuilder, ExxonMobil, Guyana Oil, oil production, Øivind Tangen

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