Oil majors may be slashing spending and deferring development plans across the globe, but they remain committed to developing the newest offshore oil finds in the heart of Latin America.
This from OilPrice.com:
Long-Term Potential in Offshore Oil Projects
These operators continue to view the oil discoveries offshore Guyana and Suriname as high-quality resources that deserve the full attention and financing even as oil prices are sitting below $30 a barrel. Abundant quality offshore resources could pump oil for decades, compared to a year or two of the wells in the U.S. shale patch, which are much cheaper and faster to design, drill, and develop, but which deplete much quicker than large offshore reservoirs.
For this reason, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Exxon said at the earnings call last week that it would be cutting production in the Permian, yet going full-steam ahead with the developments in Guyana.
ExxonMobil excludes offshore Guyana projects from capex cuts
"Guyana remains an integral part of our long-term growth plans and as such is a high priority," Exxon's chairman and chief executive officer Darren Woods said on the call.
Operations at Liza Phase 1 have been largely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Exxon said. Thanks to the Liza Phase 1 development, Guyana officially joined the ranks of oil-producing nations at the end of December. Exxon and its partner, Hess Corporation, now believe that the recoverable resource base from 16 oil discoveries offshore Guyana is more than 8 billion oil-equivalent barrels.
