Exxon closing shop in Equatorial Guinea to focus on “hotspot” Guyana – Bloomberg Report

Feb 09, 2024 News

Kaieteur News – A Bloomberg report on Thursday said American oil giant, ExxonMobil plans to leave Equatorial Guinea within months to focus on hotspot Guyana.

ExxonMobil’s CEO, Darren Woods

The report said Exxon’s exit marks the end to almost three decades of oil drilling that transformed the small West African nation into a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Notably, OPEC is an intergovernmental organisation of 13 oil-exporting developing nations that aims to manage the supply of oil in an effort to set the price of that commodity on the world market, in an effort to avoid fluctuations that might affect the economies of both producing and purchasing countries.

The report said Exxon will transfer investments in the country to the government during the second quarter of 2024. “Our focus now is on a safe handover of operations and caring for all impacted by this change,” the company said to Bloomberg via an email, adding, “the decision to leave is consistent with ExxonMobil’s long-term strategy.”

The company said that strategy entails focusing on the “fastest-growing, lowest-cost opportunities in places like Guyana and the US Permian Basin.” Just recently, ExxonMobil’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman, Darren Woods boasted about the importance of Guyana’s operations to his company’s portfolio. With Guyana’s premium oil assets, and other notable projects in its portfolio, he said, “No other company can match the depth and breadth of development opportunities his company offers.”

The CEO made this comment, among others, during Exxon’s 2023 fourth quarter earnings call late last month. During that engagement with shareholders, Woods boasted that the company finished the quarter with US$7.6Billion in profits, with major assistance from Guyana’s operations.

With three projects running successfully in Guyana at 645,000 barrels of oil per day, and well ahead of their designed production capacity, Woods expressed excitement about the prospects of a fourth project in Guyana. That development called Yellowtail is set to come on stream next year and produce 250,000 barrels of oil per day. Overall, Exxon and its partners, Hess Corporation and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, are targeting an output of 1.3 million barrels of oil per day by 2027.

• Darren Woods, ExxonMobil, gas, Guyana, hotspot, oil, Stabroek Block