Oil production from Liza Phases 1 & 2, Payara to continue into 2040s – Jagdeo

…says data submitted by ExxonMobil

The Liza Field and Payara projects, which today produce over 600,000 barrels of oil per day, are expected to continue producing oil well into the 2040s, helping to ensure that Guyana remains a globally competitive oil producer for the foreseeable future.
This was confirmed by Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo during his most recent press conference. When asked about the depletion of these wells by 2029, Jagdeo immediately debunked this assertion, and provided production figures supplied by ExxonMobil itself.
“This is what we have, that they submitted to us. Because I saw it in the newspaper. It peaks. Production peaks here, but these wells are functioning up to 2047. I knew you’d come with this… because I saw it in the newspaper, so I asked for the production profile of each of the wells,” Jagdeo said.
“You have to understand the difference between peak, peaking, plateauing and production. Peaking and plateauing are two different things. The wells will be functioning up to 2047. That is why, because these are the wells from which the gas will come,” the Vice President explained.
The Liza Phases One and Two and Payara projects, all of which combined are producing over 600,000 barrels of oil per day, account for the three floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels operating in Guyana’s Stabroek Block in waters offshore.

The current production figures will be further buttressed by the Yellowtail and Uaru developments, which are already underway and are anticipated to contribute 250,000 barrels of oil each following their respective start-ups.
An application for the sixth development, the Whiptail Project, was submitted by the Stabroek Block operator, ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) and its co-venturers. This project is currently under review by the Government, and once approved, will see Guyana producing just over 1.2 million barrels of oil per day by 2027.
In addition to at least these six projects offshore Guyana that Exxon anticipates will be online by 2027, it is also eyeing the possibility of having 10 FPSOs operational by 2030. Production has already started on three projects, with the Liza Destiny and Unity and the Prosperity FPSO vessels in operation. The third project – the Payara development – targets 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 Exxon’s fourth development in Guyana’s waters, has an anticipated start-up of 2025. The Uaru oil development, which will be the fifth one for the company offshore Guyana, is targeting between 38 and 63 development wells, including production, water injection, and gas re-injection wells.
Exxon had also previously made known that first oil from the Uaru development is anticipated by late 2026 or early 2027

Gas
Jagdeo, meanwhile, also pointed out that the Gas-to-Energy project, which has a 25-year lifespan, depends on gas from these wells; and, as such, Government would not have embarked on the US$1 billion capital investment needed for the project without assurances of the continued supply of gas.
“We have to be extraordinarily stupid – and we’re not – to be able to build a gas-to-energy project that relies on these wells to supply gas come on stream in 2025, and 2029 we don’t have any gas. We would have to be extraordinarily stupid to have that happen,” Jagdeo pointed out.
The scope of Guyana’s gas-to-energy project consists of the construction of 225 kilometres of pipeline from the Liza field in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, where Exxon and its partners are currently producing oil.
It features approximately 200 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore that will run from Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to the shore. Upon landing on the West Coast Demerara shore, the pipeline would continue for approximately 25 kilometres to the Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) Plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
In last year’s national budget, the project received a $43.3 billion allocation in addition to the $24.6 billion injected into the start-up of the transformational project, for construction of the NGL Plant and the 300-megawatt (MW) Combined Cycle Power Plant at Wales, WBD. This year, a whopping $80 billion was budgeted to advance this project and its associated infrastructure, including transmission and distribution upgrades to offtake the power.
As of January this year, the marine offloading facility has been completed, and 26 kilometres (km) of onshore pipelines have been installed. Once completed, the project would allow Guyanese to benefit from 50 per cent reduced electricity costs. (G3)