ExxonMobil in fast lane at Stabroek
US supermajor reckons developments on prolific block off Guyana are fastest in industry from FID to first oil
Eoin O'Cinneide
Rio de Janeiro
26 Sep 2018 22:50 GMT Updated 26 Sep 2018 22:51 GMT
Share:
E-mail
ExxonMobil is targeting a fastest-ever time from project sanction to start-up at its huge developments in Guyana, where the US supermajor has already pressed ahead with two field developments.
Liam Mallon, president of ExxonMobil Development Company, said at the Rio Oil & Gas conference in Rio de Janeiro that the oil giant is “blessed with good rocks” at its prolific Stabroek block, but has also implemented specific strategies to accelerate projects on the tract.
So far ExxonMobil and its partners have unearthed nine oil discoveries on the block, with the latest being Hammerhead in the south-west portion.
Total discovered recoverable resources are currently seen at over 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent, although this does not include Hammerhead and some others.
Stabroek phase three 'good to go next year'
Read more
The partners, which include US independent Hess and CNOOC Ltd via Nexen, have already sanctioned two developments involving floating production, storage and offloading units, and see scope for at least five FPSOs by 2025.
“What we are targeting is roughly a discovery to first oil cycle in the five to six-year timeframe,” Mallon said, adding that the current industry average is eight to 10 years.
“Closer to home, we are targeting FID to start-up in less than three years. We think you can achieve that on boats that are 220,000 bpd,” the production capacity of the second floater for the block.
Mallon said this would be the fasted for an oilfield development from sanction to first oil.
The ExxonMobil executive also said the partners heavily standardised in its development concepts to cut down on time to sanction and first oil, while also taking risk on the subsurface, moving very early on its original Liza discovery.
“It was a risk we were prepared to take,” he said.
Also helping was a speedy permitting process, with less than one year from submission of the original development plan to approval.
On the floaters, where SBM Offshore has been selected to provide the first two FPSOs, Mallon said: “We elected to forgo the tradition build-operate approach and went with a very flexible operation.”
Het hele project ademt de geest van SBM Offshore en dat lijkt mij een understatement.