ExxonMobil has raised the estimated recoverable resources in Guyana to more than 8 Gboe, and has announced a new oil discovery at the Uaru exploration well near the producing Liza field. The Uaru discovery is the first discovery in 2020, after 15 discoveries on the Stabroek Block in 2019, and it will be later added to the resource estimate. In addition, four drillships are currently exploring off Guyana, to explore and appraise new resources and to develop the resources of the approved projects. A fifth drillship should be deployed later in 2020, contributing to boost exploration efforts and potential discoveries.
The Stabroek block is operated by ExxonMobil's affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana with a 45% stake. The remainder is held by Hess Guyana Exploration (30%) and CNOOC (25%). Successive discoveries had raised the recoverable resource base to more than 6 Gboe. In January 2020, ExxonMobil started to produce oil at the Liza Phase 1 development. The field is expected to reach an output of 120,000 bbl/d utilizing the Liza Destiny floating production storage and offloading (FPSO), which arrived in the country in August 2019. A second FPSO, Liza Unity, will be employed for the second phase of Liza development and will enable to produce another 220,000 bbl/d of oil by mid-2022. Pending government approvals, a third development, the Payara field, could start up as early as 2023 and its oil production could reach 220,000 bbl/d.