Exxon’s Liza Destiny to arrive in Guyana in September

– has capacity to store 1.6M barrels of oil

As ExxonMobil prepares for first oil in 2020, the first oil production vessel has set sail for Guyanese waters and is expected to arrive sometime in September.
The Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, Liza Destiny, was commissioned by First Lady Sandra Granger before departing the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore.
The Liza Destiny has a production capacity up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day and an overall storage volume of 1.6 million barrels.
During normal operations, there will be at least 80 persons living and working onboard the vessel. Additionally, 24 Operations and Maintenance Technicians, who are currently being trained in Canada, will return in 2020 to support work on the Liza Destiny.
This FPSO is a significant component of the Liza Phase 1 development, which involves four undersea drill centres with 17 production wells.
“We have more than 1000 Guyanese working for the project here and the team is continuing to do an incredible job. Their work includes everything from completions of the initial wells for production to laying pipelines and infrastructure on the sea floor to eventually connect up to the Liza Destiny for production. We’re proud of the work being done each and every day and want to thank everyone involved for their focus on safety and keeping the protection of the environment top of mind in all that they do,” Rod Henson, Exxon’s Country Manager, had stated.
The Liza Destiny was converted from an oil tanker previously called Tina. Engineering and design began in December 2016 and work initiated in June 2017. During that time, over 3000 persons have worked on the vessel.
Meanwhile, the Noble Bob Douglas drillship is completing development drilling operations for Liza Phase 1. ExxonMobil will add another exploration drillship, the Noble Don Taylor, in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Phase 2 of the Liza development is expected to start-up in mid-2022 and will develop approximately 600 million barrels of oil through the Liza Unity, Exxon’s second FPSO vessel in the series.
For the Phase 2 Development, six drill centres are planned, along with approximately 30 wells – 15 production— nine water injection, and six gas injection wells.
Following its 10th discovery of oil in the Stabroek Block, ExxonMobil had estimated the recoverable resource in the block to be five billion oil-equivalent barrels. With oil at US$50 a barrel, that equates to well over US$200 billion.
The US oil giant has since revised this figure upwards after three more discoveries, the last one being at the Yellowtail-1 well in April. More drilling is also scheduled for this year.
The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometres). ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is the operator and holds 45 per cent interest in the Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd holds 30 per cent interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds 25 per cent interest.