(Republish from https://www.argusmedia.com/)
Guyana is producing around 85,000 b/d of crude, 35,000 b/d short of an August target because of a prolonged gas compression issue on the ExxonMobil-operated Stabroek block.
ExxonMobil is hoping to resolve the technical problem by next month to reach the 120,000 b/d capacity of the Liza Destiny floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO) that is working the Liza-1 well, ExxonMobil Guyana president Alistair Routledge said yesterday.
Guyana’s crude production had reached 100,000 b/d in July, 25pc up on June, Guyana energy department director Mark Bynoe had told Argus in July. One of ExxonMobil’s Stabroek partners, US independent Hess, had said in July that output would reach 120,000 b/d in August.
ExxonMobil started production of 32.1°API Liza crude in December 2019 and initially projected 120,000 b/d by March 2020.
ExxonMobil now anticipates reaching the target “if we resolve everything that we have and all the plans that we have in the September timeframe,” Routledge said.
The technical problems with gas compression started in late May and drove June output down to 27,500 b/d, 65pc below May. The problems have since forced ExxonMobil to limit reinjection of natural gas to volumes required to lift crude production.
The company’s efforts to resolve the problems and to commission a gas compression system have also been delayed as technicians arriving in the country have had to observe the government’s Covid-19 isolation protocols, ExxonMobil said.
“We would have been on top of this earlier, had it not been for Covid that has severely hampered the ability to move people offshore and to get equipment moved around the world,” Routledge said. “It really has slowed things down for us.”
ExxonMobil estimates recoverable resources at the deepwater block of 8bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe), with production of 750,000 b/d in 2020.