ExxonMobil Guyana has restarted hydrocarbon explorations at the Stabroek Block off South America’s North Atlantic. The company, backed up by Noble Corporation-owned MODUs and Stena Drilling owned MODUs, is gearing up to drill deeper into a possible source of oil and natural gas. The Haimara_3 exploration drilling site, within Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone began on December 25, 2024, MARAD reported.
Stena Drilling’s Stena Carron drillship is leading the operations, expected to conclude by December 31, 2024. The drilling project is supported by subsea vessels like Havila Phoenix and C-Installer, plus ships like Seacor Amazon. The Stena Carron can drill as deep as 35,000 feet in waters up to 10,000 feet deep.
Developmental Drilling Activities Expand Scope
ExxonMobil has also restarted developmental drilling at two additional sites. The Noble Tom Madden drillship began drilling at the YT_1i07 well site on December 23, 2024. This project, situated 203.6 kilometers offshore, will wrap up by December 31. Simultaneously, the Noble Sam Croft drillship resumed drilling at the UA_3i04 well site, 194 kilometers from the coast. Both projects are part of a broader strategy to maximize the block’s potential.
Under a commercial enabling agreement (CEA) with Noble Corporation, ExxonMobil has extended contracts for four drillships—Noble Tom Madden, Noble Sam Croft, Noble Don Taylor, and Noble Bob Douglas—adding 4.8 rig years to their operational timelines. These extensions secure their deployment in Guyana until August 2028.
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SBM Offshore first brought the FPSO Liza Destiny into service, which has been operating off the Coast of Guyana since December 2019 under the Liza Phase 1. The crew support vessel C-Worker 1 is assisting maintenance, which will thus be completed by December 31, 2024. Liza Destiny lies 169.5 kilometers offshore over an area of 466.9 square kilometers.
ExxonMobil has already achieved 30 major oil and gas discoveries since the first in 2015 on the Stabroek Block, with recoverable resources in excess of 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Currently, it’s ExxonMobil holding a 45% stake with the operator role on account of the other two blocks in Guyana, while Hess Guyana Exploration got the remaining 30%.
By 2027, six floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) units will be producing over 1.2 million barrels of oil daily, and ExxonMobil is presently in the process of seeking approval for its seventh project, Hammerhead, which could add 180,000 barrels per day by 2029, thus greatly increasing Guyana’s production.