Latest update November 7th, 2024 1:00 AM
Oct 10, 2024 News
“Guyana’s oil reserves currently less than 11B barrels – ExxonMobil Guyana President said during Exxon’s third quarter press briefing at the Duke Street, Kingston, Georgetown headquarters”
By: Davina Bagot
Kaieteur News – It took citizens two years and four months before the government of Guyana (GoG) provided an update on the amount of oil discovered by ExxonMobil in the Stabroek Block.
The announcement that the country’s oil reserves grew by a mere 600 million barrels in August this year, following the last resource update in April 2022 however stirred more questions than it laid concerns to rest. The Ministry of Natural Resources in August revealed that the Stabroek Block reserves grew from 11 billion barrels to 11.6 billion barrels, following eight new discoveries since the last update.
ExxonMobil has however now come out disputing the figures released by government, providing its own resource estimate. The company’s Country Manager, Alistair Routledge on Wednesday said the Stabroek Block reserves are less than 11 billion barrels. Routledge was at the time responding to a question from Kaieteur News, during Exxon’s third quarter press briefing at the Duke Street, Kingston, Georgetown headquarters. This newspaper had asked him to share how many of the eight discoveries were appraised for the company to arrive at the new resource estimate of 11.6 billion barrels.
To this end, he explained, “The government released a number of 11.6B oil equivalent barrels, ExxonMobil’s estimate is lower than that number…our number remains a little under 11 billion oil equivalent barrels.” Furthermore, he noted that the company is obligated to make such reports to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, making the point that Exxon was not keeping the figures away.
Meanwhile, in explaining the variation between Exxon’s figures compared to the reserves announced by government, Routledge noted that the state conducts independent studies, although it is supplied with data by the company.
“They also do independent studies (and) verifications with other consultants and the work that they do themselves and the GGMC and Ministry of Natural Resources so it’s quite normal to have a slightly different view of the number,” he reasoned.
Exxon Guyana’s President also stressed the importance of focusing on translating those reserves to development. “We can have a wish list of estimated ultimate recovery but what’s material to the country is ‘are we moving it into sanctioned projects’ with finance, with a development plan and as we’ve talked about before I think we are around the 5B oil equivalent barrels that we’ve now moved successfully in the six projects into that category.”
Oil reserves
Since the announcement in August by Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat that Guyana’s oil reserves grew by a meager 600 million barrels government has failed to say how it arrived at this new figure despite being questioned on multiple occasions.
Opposition parties previously shared concerns over the questionable increase in the Stabroek Block reserves, some eight new discoveries later. This was particularly so since China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), a shareholder in the Stabroek Block, revealed that one of the eight discoveries- Lancetfish- averaged 100 million tons, translating to an estimated 746 million barrels of oil. It was also later announced by CNOOC that yet another discovery- Bluefin- had over 100 million tons of oil and gas. CNOOC has 25% shares in the Stabroek Block; Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30% interest while ExxonMobil, the operator of the Stabroek Block, holds a 45% interest.
(Guyana’s oil reserves currently less than 11B barrels – ExxonMobil Guyana President)
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