(Energy Analytics Institute, Pietro D. Pitts, 2.Mar.2017) – Sleepy Guyana is gearing up to surpass twin-island nation Trinidad and Tobago in terms of oil production.
Production plans by Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corporation at the promising Stabroek Block offshore Guyana will assist the small country to initially produce more oil than its Caribbean neighbor Trinidad, which has been producing oil for over a century.
Exxon — which plans to make an investment decision later this year regarding finds at the Stabroek Block, including the Liza, Liza deep and Payara wells – expects production of 100,000 barrels per day in 2020 in the initial phase using a Float Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit, said Jeff Woodbury, Exxon Mobil Vice President of Investor Relations during a conference call on January 31, 2017.
“Guyana is to become the newest petrostate. It has two neighbors from which to learn what to do, Trinidad, and what not to do, Venezuela,” Francisco J. Monaldi, Ph.D. and Fellow in Latin American Energy Policy & Lecturer in Energy Economics at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy wrote in a twitter post.
The Stabroek Block covers 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometers). The operator of the block is Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited with a 45 percent interest. Other partners in the block include: Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. with a 30 percent interest and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Limited with a 25 percent interest.
Trinidad produced an average of around 72,000 barrels per day in the eleven months between January and November of 2016, according to data published in a bulletin by the country’s Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries.
***