ExxonMobil ups Guyana resource estimate to over 8 billion boe, makes 16th discovery

Houston — ExxonMobil raised the amount of its estimated recoverable reserves in Guyana on Monday by over 30% to more than 8 billion boe, even excluding a just-announced new discovery.

Urau-1 is the 16th discovery at the offshore deepwater Stabroek block for the ExxonMobil-led consortium that includes Hess and China's CNOOC, the partners said in separate press releases.

The previous resource estimate for the block was more than 6 billion boe after it was raised from 5.5 billion boe last July.

Hess CEO John Hess said in a statement the company sees "multibillion barrels of additional exploration potential remaining."

Analysts also foresee many more discoveries and further increases to the 8 billion boe figure.

Credit Suisse analyst Bill Featherston said in a Monday investor note there are "another roughly 25 additional exploration prospects left to test on the block which leave room for further resource upside to the more than 8 billion boe."

NEW ESTIMATE INCLUDES 15 DISCOVERIES

The 8 billion boe includes 15 discoveries at Stabroek through year-end 2019, including its 14th find Tripletail and 15th find Mako made in second-half 2019. Uaru is the first find of 2020 and will be added to the resource estimate at a later date, ExxonMobil said.

Uaru, sited in 6,432 feet of water, found about 94 feet of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoir. It is located around 10 miles northeast of the Liza field, which began producing oil last month.

More color is anticipated from Hess Corp.'s Q4 quarterly conference call Wednesday and, potentially, from ExxonMobil's call on Friday.

Liza is ramping up to the 120,000 b/d peak in the coming months. It is producing into the Liza Destiny, a floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

The second phase of Liza development will use a second FPSO, Liza Unity, with a production capacity of 220,000 b/d of oil. That output is expected to start in mid-2022.

Payara, north of the Liza discoveries, has not been sanctioned yet, but that could happen early this year, Payara is pegged for a 2023 startup, also reaching 220,000 b/d.

Four drillships continue to explore and appraise new resources and develop the projects. A fifth drillship is targeted for deployment later in 2020, the companies said.

ExxonMobil and partners have said they envision at least five FPSOs producing a gross 750,000 b/d of oil by 2025.

"[But] this is very likely to be raised at ExxonMobil's Analyst Day" in early March, Featherston said. "Notably, based on discoveries to date, we see the potential for at least nine phases" even before including the 25 additional exploratory prospects at Stabroek.

Tests at the earlier Yellowtail and Longtail discoveries are also pending, he added.