Oil flows for Xmas as Exxon
finds yet another well
By Bert Wilkinson
The company had always led
Guyanese to believe that first oil
would have flowed from the seabed
sometime in March of 2020,
but just before half past nine
on Dec. 20, American supermajor
ExxonMobil announced that
Guyana had officially become
the world’s newest producer of
crude oil, less than five years
after Exxon had first boasted
about an offshore commercial
find.
Senior company officials had
said that it was standard practice
to add a six-month additional
period to the real deadline to
cater for eventualities and extensive
safety checks before a startup
date was announced, hence
March as the outer deadline that
had had been fed to industry
observers for months.
The announcement by Exxon
and partners Hess Oil of the US
and CNOOC of China came five
days before Christmas and less
than three months before Guyanese
vote in what is being widely
regarded as the most crucial
and defining general elections in
the country’s history. Analysts
say that whichever party wins
the March 2, 2020 general elections
with oil revenues set be
more than $1B in five years, will
control this resource-rich nation
for decades.
Officials also said that by the
time oil quality tests are completed
and the lifting of crude from
Caribbean Life, D 16 ec. 27, 2019-Jan. 2, 2020
the ocean floor settles down in a
few weeks, production could be
ramped up to about 120,000 barrels
per day or about twice the
production level of neighboring
Trinidad which has been an oil
producer for 111 years.
The commencement of offshore
oil production in Guyana
also now means that Guyana
has joined Trinidad, Suriname
with about 16,000 barrels daily
of oil from onshore wells near
the Guyana border and Barbados
at about 1,600 barrels daily from
inland wells in the center of the
island.
And just when the weekend
announcement was beginning
to sink in as Guyanese wrapped
up last minute Christmas shopping
and household chores,
Exxon dropped another bombshell
in the world of oil and gas,
saying that it had discovered yet
another gushing well-its 15th
so far.
Reacting to the announcement,
Guyanese Energy Department
Director Mark Bynoe said
that he Mako-1 well is located
An ExxonMobil rig off Guyana. Photo by Bert Wilkinson
just southeast of the Liza-1 well-
Exxon’s first commercial discovery
back in 2015. “This discovery
by ExxonMobil and its partners
comes on the heels of the start
of oil production. The Republic
of Guyana is experiencing
a truly historic moment that
has all the ingredients to facilitate
a paradigm shift towards
sustained economic transformation,”
Bynoe said.
Dr. Mark Bynoe. https://dpi.gov.
gy/
/dpi.gov
/dpi.gov
