ExxonMobil made a deepwater oil discovery at the Mako-1 well offshore Guyana, the US supermajor announced on Monday, just days after reporting first oil from the nearby Liza field on Friday.
The 15th discovery on the Stabroek Block, the new find adds to the previously announced estimated recoverable resource of more than 6 billion oil-equivalent barrels on the prolific and closely watched block.
Located approximately 10 kilometers southeast of the Liza field, Mako-1 was drilled in 1,620 meters of water and encountered approximately 50 meters of a high-quality oil bearing sandstone reservoir.
“New discoveries in this world-class basin have the potential to support additional developments,” said Mike Cousins, senior vice president of exploration and new ventures at ExxonMobil. “Our proprietary full-wave seismic inversion technology continues to help us better define our discovered resource and move rapidly to the development phase.”
The Liza Phase 1 development achieved first oil on December 20, 2019 and will produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day utilizing the Liza Destiny floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).
The Liza Unity FPSO, which will be employed for the second phase of Liza development and will have a production capacity of 220,000 barrels of oil per day, is under construction and expected to start production by mid-2022.
Pending government approvals and project sanctioning of a third development, production from the Payara field north of the Liza discoveries could start as early as 2023, reaching an estimated 220,000 barrels of oil per day.
Drilling activities in Guyana continue with four drillships to further explore and appraise new resources as well as develop the resources within approved projects, ExxonMobil said.
ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is operator and holds 45% interest in the 26,800-square-kilometer Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30% interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds 25% interest.
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