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ExxonMobil saddling Guyana with hefty exploration bill but blanks citizens on findings
(Kaieteur News) – Guyana has so far paid ExxonMobil more to explore for oil than it has received royalty, but the company’s focus is not on updating the country on its findings, but on moving to develop the resources.
This is according to President of ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL), Alistair Routledge. He was asked by this newspaper to share an update on the country’s oil reserves at a press conference hosted in the new headquarters at Ogle, East Coast Demerara on Monday.
One of the drillships used by ExxonMobil in Guyana to explore for oil
To this end, he said, “So, as we’ve said before, when we have a significant update on the discovered resource, then we’ll give you that, but our focus is really shifted to what is most valuable to the country, moving discovered resource into development.”
Routledge added that Exxon is “very pleased” to see its seventh project approved by government with an eight already in the pipeline. He pointed out, “It’s through those investments, those developments that ultimately will demonstrate how much is recoverable, how much of the resource that we’re discovering is recoverable.”
The Exxon President maintained that the company’s estimate is still “around” the 11 billion figure that was shared since 2022. Notably, the country has since had over eight discoveries yet its reserves remain stagnant.
The last resource count, dated April 26, 2022, declared the recoverable resource for the Stabroek Block at nearly 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels. Since then, Exxon announced more than eight subsequent discoveries, including the Seabob-1 and Kiru-Kiru-1 wells, Sailfin-1, Yarrow-1, Fangtooth SE, Lancetfish-1, and Lancetfish-2 wells and Bluefin.
Another journalist then asked Exxon why it was reluctant to give an update or simply say how soon a new reserve estimate can be shared, considering the eight subsequent discoveries. Furthermore, she pointed out that this information is crucial for Guyanese to better understand the anticipated revenue flow sector, while the blackout on information puts more doubt on the company’s operations since this data was shared publicly following a new discovery in the past.
For his part, Routledge noted that the company did not provide an update to the 11B figure since there is no different number to share. He explained the reason for this. “Well, I can tell you, the number remains around 11. The reason we haven’t given you a different number is there isn’t a different number. And so let me tell you why that might be, because as you say, we’ve announced some discoveries over the last couple of years. The pace of discoveries has slowed down somewhat but what happens over time is we’re not just continuing to explore, but we’re also appraising, as we mentioned…what we’ve been doing is constantly updating those initial estimates with what are our refined estimates, what will be the ultimate recovery of that resource that we’ve discovered.”
Results from the company’s appraisal activities have caused the company to reduce its estimate for some discoveries, while there have also been increases in some instances. As such, Routledge explained, “Net, it keeps you around about that same (11B barrel figure) and we provide quarterly updates to the Minister of Natural Resource on all of those discoveries as to what is our current estimated new reserves.”
On Monday Kaieteur News reported that Guyana has been handed a bill for approximately US$2.3B by ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) for exploration activities conducted in the Stabroek Block, but to date, the country has accumulated less than US$1B in royalties since production commenced in 2019.
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