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ExxonMobil reports growth in oil reserves to shareholders
…but nothing told to Guyanese by Govt. and company
(Kaieteur News) – ExxonMobil Corporation in its 2025 Annual Report has bragged to shareholders about growth in oil reserves from new discoveries and extensions in Guyana while the company and government made no such disclosure to the country.
The company operates the resource-rich Stabroek Block where it holds 45% shares with partners Hess holding 30% and CNOOC the remaining 25%.
In 2025, no new oil discoveries were announced by the Co-Venturers. Similarly, the government did not share any information in that regard. This newspaper had unearthed that a total of three discoveries were made by the company last year but kept quiet. This sparked new speculations about the company’s operations here in Georgetown, as the country, and Kaieteur News in particular continued to highlight the stagnated reserves despite the announcement of more discoveries.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Exxon Mobil Corporation, Darren Woods.
Following the publication of that report in November 2025, ExxonMobil swiftly issued a response, assuring that reserves and oil discoveries were not being hidden. In fact, the company explained that the discoveries made in 2025 that were published in the Mid-Year Report were not of commercial quantities.
“The three wells referenced in the Ministry of Finance’s Mid-Year Report were disclosed to the government in accordance with these obligations. That is how they ended up in the Report. EMGL publicly announces all significant discoveries – those that materially impact resource estimates or development plans. The three wells mentioned in the report do not meet this threshold, which is why they were not included in our public announcements,” the company stated back then.
In its 2025 Annual Report, a twist of events have unfolded, with the company informing shareholders of growth in oil reserves in Guyana, despite no formal announcements to the country of such growth. The document states, “The changes between 2025 year-end proved reserves and 2024 year-end proved reserves include worldwide production of 1.8 billion oil-equivalent barrels (GOEB), asset sales of 0.1 GOEB primarily in the United States, and downward revisions of 0.9 GOEB attributed primarily to the United States. Additions to proved reserves include 2.1 GOEB from extensions and discoveries primary in the United States and Guyana and 0.1 GOEB related to United States acquisitions.”
With growth recorded in reserves from Guyana, the company’s total crude oil reserves for 2025 surpassed 8B barrels. In its reserve disclosure, Exxon said at the end of 2025 approximately 7B oil-equivalent barrels (GOEB) of the company’s proved reserves were classified as proved undeveloped. As such, the company noted, “In 2025, extensions and discoveries, primarily in the United States and Guyana, resulted in the addition of approximately 2.0 GOEB of proved undeveloped reserves.”
Proved oil reserves are those quantities, which, by analysis of geoscience and engineering data, can be estimated with reasonable certainty to be economically producible. On the other hand, proved undeveloped reserves are those volumes that are expected to be recovered from new wells on undrilled acreage, or from existing wells where a relatively major expenditure is required for recompletion.
Guyana’s oil reserves
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.
In September last year, former Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan asserted that the Stabroek Block oil reserves has 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.
“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.
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How do you know if an American oil giant is lying? Their lips are moving. Everything that Exxon, Chevron and the other majors say should he considered to be dishonest until proven true.
Over and over again they show up in a country and the population gets robbed while being told how lucky they are to have the major oil companies rape and pillage their natural resources.