‘Guyana’s oil to help lift world from poverty’ – Exxon Upstream boss tells energy confab

Feb 18, 2026 ExxonMobil, News

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By: Davina Bagot

(Kaieteur News) – Guyana’s sweet light crude, discovered in the Stabroek Block by American energy giant, ExxonMobil will not only improve the lives of Guyanese, but will help to lift people across the globe out of poverty, according to the company’s Vice President, Dan Ammann.

Delivering a keynote address at the opening day of the fifth installment of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo, the President of ExxonMobil Upstream Company and Vice President of the Corporation, Dan Ammann spoke glowingly of the country’s energy potential and the crucial role it plays in the company.

Overseeing Exxon’s efforts to discover, develop and produce oil around the world, including the Permian Basin in the United States, Angola, Nigeria Indonesia, and several others, including neighbouring Brazil, Ammann spoke of the vantage point he holds.

With an eagle’s view of each country he said, “I can very confidently say that Guyana is perhaps the most exceptional energy development anywhere in the world not only for the scale of the resources offshore, but how it’s being developed and managed and importantly what it is enabling onshore.”

Shifting his attention to the role Guyana will play on a much wider level, he said the country’s resources will help improve the lives of people across the globe, with the country already experiencing transformation. “First, energy development is transforming this country. You can see it everywhere. New construction, hospitals, clinics, schools, roads, bridges, shops and stores, beautification projects, community centers and recreational facilities,” he stated.

More importantly, Ammann added that this transformation is also evident in human capital with new jobs being created, expansion of business opportunities, improvements in health and progress in education. “Then, there’s what the energy from Guyana can do to improve the lives of people all around the world…it helps lift people out of poverty and raise the standard of living of people everywhere. Guyana’s energy develops Guyana but it helps the entire (globe) and that’s what this conference is about,” he shared.

Already, the VP noted that the country has become the world’s largest oil producer per capita, producing over 900,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Guyana currently has four Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels (FPSOs) operating in the Stabroek Block. A fifth FPSO, is expected to come online by the end of 2026, pushing the country’s daily capacity beyond one million barrels daily. Meanwhile, a sixth deepwater development will add another 250,000 barrels daily in 2027.

Despite the unprecedented growth in oil production in Guyana, the country will continue to receive a meagre share of the revenue generated offshore, until it repays Exxon for its current and future projects. The country receives just 12.5 barrels of every 100 produced in the Stabroek Block.

In keeping with the provisions of the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), the contractor, ExxonMobil can take up to 75% of production each month to cover expenses related to production activities. The remaining 25% is split equally with Guyana as profits with the country receiving an additional 2% royalty paid from gross production.  This model has resulted in Guyana receiving only a trickle of its non-renewable wealth, while poverty continues to afflict more than half of the population.

Imbalance in PSA

Kaieteur News reported in December last year that ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC raked in US$8.4 billion in profits from Guyana’s Stabroek Block in 2024, while Guyana—entitled to a 50 percent share—received just US$2.6 billion, raising renewed concerns about how profits are calculated under the oil contract.

Exxon, a 45% shareholder in the block reported a profit of US$4,738,784,812 for the year ending December 2024. Financial statements for Hess, the 30% shareholder, shows the company earned US$3,145,029,074 while CNOOC with the remaining 25% share bagged US$530,737,000 during the same period. This means that the partners together pocketed a massive US$8,414,550,886 for the year 2024.

Notably, Guyana should be receiving 50% of the profits from the Stabroek Block, or half of the revenue from crude sales in accordance with the provisions of the 2016 PSA. However, Guyana received just about a quarter of the US$8.4B that the Stabroek Block partners gained from the deal. Deposits into the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) in 2024 totalled just about US$2.6B raising questions about the method of calculation for profits under the contract.

Poverty in Guyana

With meagre resources flowing to the country, Guyanese continue to cry out against the impossible wages they are forced to live on.

Only last week, women from Red Thread joined a picket outside the Arthur Chung Conference Center where Parliamentarians were debating the 2026 National Budget. They vented frustration over the allocation of millions to an Office that provided no evidence of work to the House, as more resources continue to pour in that direction.

“I am out here because I am a poor person and this budget is not poor people friendly. I am angry that a former judge could be receiving $40 million a year for work that we don’t even see,” said Wintress Whyte as she held her placard.

“Poor people can’t eat certain things. They always have to forego something. Some of them can’t even afford to send their children to school every day. Some of them go to school and they can’t even eat a proper meal. Look at what they giving the children and calling it healthy meal- a pine tart,” Susan Collymore argued.

Similarly, Wintress Whyte noted, “The government minimum wage is $60,147 per month. House rent in Georgetown is $45,000 and up for a one bedroom. I can’t even add in the meals and transportation and so forth…poor people have to be in our bed worrying what we giving the children them tomorrow. We got to be doing Mathematics in we sleep. In we sleep we worrying, take away, subtract and then you divide and multiply the money still can’t do.”

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• Dan Ammann, Exxon, Guyana’s oil, light crude, poverty, upstream

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