Liza Unity Sails to Guyana

September was a milestone month for both oil exploration and development in Guyana. The Liza Unity floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel set sail from Singapore to Guyana, and ExxonMobil announced further discoveries offshore in the Stabroek Block. It is evident the budding oil and gas industry is rapidly advancing.

Noble Sam Croft, one of six drill ships currently part of ExxonMobil Guyana’s extensive well programme that tests play extensions and new concepts, conducted drilling at the Pinktail discovery well southeast of the Liza Phase 1 project. It also completed the successful appraisal of the Turbot-1 discovery by drilling the Turbot-2 well, which encountered net pay in a newly identified reservoir. These discoveries add to the previous recoverable resource estimate of approximately 9 billion oil equivalent barrels in the Stabroek Block, which has the possibility of 10 projects.

Additional projects equate to continuous and additional service needs for the industry that will drive the development of local content and expand opportunities for economic investment. Mike Cousins, Senior Vice President of Exploration and New Ventures at ExxonMobil said, “Our exploration successes continue to increase the discovered resource and will generate value for both the Guyanese people and our shareholders.”

The arrival of Unity, the second FPSO in Guyana, toward the end of the year and the start-up of Phase 2 in early 2022 signals continuity between projects. Unity has the capacity to produce approximately 220,000 barrels of oil per day. A pace of continuous development has been set in motion that can foster sustainable economic benefits for the country.