Guyana has approved ExxonMobil’s $12.7bn bid for its fifth offshore oil project, underlining the importance of the country as a source of tanker demand growth.
The Uaru venture is expected to produce an estimated 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and gas products by the second three months of 2027 — a suezmax cargo every four days.
Uara will have a “staggering” 44 production wells and 10 drilling centres, according to French shipbroker BRS Group.
Japanese owner Modec is set to build the Errea Wittu, the official floating offshore production and storage (FPSO) vessel for the project.
“Guyana is one of the main sources of incremental crude tanker demand… with both suezmaxes and VLCCs benefiting from the appetite for Guyanese crude in Asia,” French shipbroker BRS Group said.
Guyana is now producing around 370,000 bpd of crude, all of which is exported by ships.
By 2026, ExxonMobil’s aggregate production in Guyana will exceed 1m bpd.
In January, the country’s vice president Bahrrat Jagdeo highlighted strong interest the country had received in its offshore oil blocks.
Another state-initiated bid is set to open in July to cover oil and gas reserves over 2,000 square km.
Earlier this year, it was reported that US oil producer Hess was said to be eyeing a seventh production platform in its waters.
Half of exports heading to Europe
Hess is part of the ExxonMobil-led consortium that controls all production in the nation.
Last September, TradeWinds reported that about half of Guyana’s oil exports had headed to Europe by that point in 2022, to replace Russian crude.
The share of Guyana’s oil exports taken by Europe increased from 16% last year, to 49% in the first eight months, due to demand from refiners, Refinitiv Eikon tanker tracking data suggested.
Guyana was expected to earn more than $1bn from oil exports in 2022, three years after it became an oil producer.
