In 2013, an exploration vessel chartered by Anadarko Petroleum was conducting seismic work off the Guyanese coast when it was approached by a Venezuelan navy vessel and forced to sail to Margarita Island where it was detained. In 2000, a Surinamese gunboat threatened to fire on a CGX rig as it attempted to prepare an exploration well. The long-running maritime border disputes with neighbors Venezuela and Suriname only served to enhance that risk. So, ExxonMobil and its partner companies were assuming an enormous risk going into this potential development. Guyana also had the dubious distinction of being a total write off for Royal Dutch Shell, which sold its offshore oil exploration block that year for $1. There was little infrastructure in place to support any sort of production. At the time Guyana had no history of oil production and there had been a long string of over 40 unsuccessful exploration wells. Vocal critics have already begun to advocate for the government to take another look at the Stabroek production sharing agreement (PSA), which was signed in 2016.Ī streak of successful discoveries has cast that contract in a different light, yet the situation in 2015 was not nearly as rosy as things sit today. But it remains to be seen what this confluence of elections and production may mean for the industry. The upcoming elections will play out in late 2019 and early 2020, roughly the same time during which first oil production will take place. These projections present transformative potential for a country with a population of around 800,000 and current GDP of less than $4 billion. Some analysts have calculated that the Government of Guyana could reap as much as $5 billion per year. The first FPSO vessel recently set sail for Guyanese waters, and some expect to see as many as four or five offshore by the mid-2020s. ExxonMobil and its partners expect production can surge from zero to more than 750,000 barrels per day over the next 5 years. The production potential here is staggering.
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