Exxon ordered to submit quarterly reserve updates for 7th project

Oct 01, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana has moved to impose stricter oversight on ExxonMobil’s oil operations, demanding that the U.S. oil giant submit quarterly reports on reserves for its seventh offshore development, the Hammerhead Project.

This mechanism would play a key role in monitoring the depletion of the resources and aid in strategic planning for future development.

According to the Production Licence (PL) granted last week, Exxon is now obligated to provide detailed updates on the depletion of Guyana’s oil and gas resources, ensuring closer monitoring of how the country’s non-renewable wealth is being extracted. The licence spells out: “The Licence Holder shall submit quarterly resource and reserve reports to the Minister in respect of the Hammerhead Project in such form and manner as the Minister may direct from time to time.” These reports must cover all saleable petroleum products—oil, gas, and natural gas liquids—produced at Hammerhead and must align with international standards set by the Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS).

In addition, Exxon must cooperate fully for any reserve audits, granting access to petroleum data as required to any person or government agency duly authorised by the minister, the Petroleum License states.  Three years after Hammerhead’s first oil, the company will also be required to procure an independent third-party consultant to conduct a reserve and resource assessment.

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil will also be required to submit annual data for the reservoirs, commencing 90 days from the issue of the Hammerhead Licence.

These models (current static and dynamic field) shall incorporate new data, as appropriate, inclusive of exploration, appraisal, development and production activities conducted in the previous year.  The Hammerhead development is located in the south-western portion of the Stabroek Block. Notably, a total of 445 million barrels of oil is forecast to be produced with an estimated daily production capacity of 150,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). Hammerhead oil production will be facilitated through 10 production wells and 8 injection wells, commencing in 2029. The project is expected to boost Guyana’s overall production capacity at approximately 1.5 million bpd. Additionally, associated gas produced from Hammerhead will be transferred to the Gas-to-Energy (GtE) pipeline network.

The issue of Guyana’s oil reserves has been a source of contention, former Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan believes the Stabroek Block oil reserves is far more oil than the 11.6 billion barrels announced.  The former minister said that even at the current pace of extraction by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL), he believes there is enough oil to last another 30 to 40 years. The question of Guyana’s true reserves gained attention in 2024. That August, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced that reserves grew by 600 million barrels to 11.6 billion, following eight new discoveries since the last update in April 2022. But Exxon disputed the government’s figure, providing its own lower estimate of below 11 billion barrels.

“I believe quite honestly that we are being fooled and we are doing nothing about it, about how much oil has really been discovered,” Jordan said, citing the last eight new discoveries made by the oil company. He argued that there has been a blackout on information about the true estimate of Guyana’s oil finds. “All those 11.6 billion barrels that they are telling us I believe it is double or triple that. So, we got oil that could last us 40 years or 50 years even at the present extraction,” Jordan noted.

Jordan further estimated that at a conservative US$60 per barrel, Guyana stands to earn massive revenues. “That’s huge money coming to a small country in terms of population, 10 years’ time with good investment and all these things, all of us here could be not super rich but we should have a decent standard living,” he added.

Oil was discovered offshore Guyana in 2015 and by December 2019, production commenced. Exxon has already received government approval for six developments in the Stabroek Block. The first four are in operation, producing an average of 650,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) with an installed capacity of 900,000 bpd.

The company’s country manager, Alistair Routledge at a press conference last year said the Stabroek Block reserves are less than 11 billion barrels. Routledge was asked how many of the eight discoveries were appraised for the company to arrive at the new resource estimate of 11.6 billion barrels. He explained, “The government released a number of 11.6 billion oil equivalent barrels, ExxonMobil’s estimate is lower than that number…our number remains a little under 11 billion oil equivalent barrels.” Furthermore, he noted that the company is obligated to make such reports to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, making the point that Exxon was not keeping the figures away.

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• 7th project, ExxonMobil, Government of Guyana, Hammerhead project, quarterly reserve updates, Stabroek Block, stricter oversight

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