Guyana has 3rd largest oil reserves in Latin America & Caribbean – Pres Ali

– analysts project Guyana will be 2nd largest deep-water producer

Guyana, where oil was first discovered in 2015 and first produced the commodity back in 2019, has the third-largest oil reserves in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), behind only Venezuela and Brazil.
This was shared by President Dr Irfaan Ali, while addressing Suriname’s Energy, Oil & Gas Summit & Exhibition 2022 on Monday in the Dutch-speaking country. According to Ali, Guyana has had 31 discoveries and five for this year. This includes April when three new oilfield discoveries were announced.

“We have an estimated recoverable value of 11 billion barrels. The country currently has the third-largest reserves in Latin America and the Caribbean and is expected by industry analysts to become the second-largest deep-water producer,” President Ali explained.
“We had 31 discoveries, with five discoveries for 2022. In April, the operator of the Stabroek Block, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, announced three new oilfield discoveries. This builds on the two major discoveries announced on January 5, 2022.”
The President further noted that Guyana and other producers can make a meaningful contribution regionally and globally. The President noted that with Guyana having the third-largest oil reserves in Latin America and the Caribbean, the time is opportune for the country to play a key role.
“We can reposition this region globally. But it requires bold decision-making, it requires one common strategic approach from all of us. And it requires us working together, in policy formulation, to advance,” the President said.
Oil production began in Guyana, with US oil giant ExxonMobil as the operator, on December 20, 2019, in the Stabroek Block. Guyana has over the last five years accounted for 70 per cent of proven new oil reserves globally. This is even as the world’s largest oil exploration companies run out of proven new oil reserves.
According to an analysis from Norwegian oil and gas consultant Rystad Energy last year, new oil reserves among Big Oil which comprises companies such as ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, Total and Eni, have fallen. However, Exxon has come out ahead of its peers, thanks to Guyana.
“New discovered volumes – a measurement of a company’s exploration performance – illustrates the daunting challenge faced by oil majors to maintain their reserves base and supply existing customers,” Rystad had said.
“Over the past five years, the six majors have replaced only 45 per cent of their production through reserves from new discoveries. ExxonMobil fared better than its peers, adding more than 70 per cent of the produced reserves thanks to 9 billion (barrels of oil) of discovered volumes in the offshore Stabroek Block in Guyana.”
ExxonMobil has said it anticipates at least six projects offshore Guyana will be online by 2027, with developmental drilling recently starting on the second one, the Liza Phase 2 project. Production has already started in the second phase, with the Liza Unity Floating Production and Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel in operation.
The third project –the Payara Development – will meanwhile target an estimated resource base of about 600 million oil-equivalent barrels and was at one point considered to be the largest single planned investment in the history of Guyana.
Meanwhile, the Yellowtail development, which will be oil giant ExxonMobil’s fourth development in Guyana’s waters, will turn out to be the single largest development so far in terms of barrels per day of oil, with a mammoth 250,000 bpd targeted.
The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometres). EEPGL 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.