ExxonMobil stated that it made an oil discovery offshore Guyana at the Mako-1 well southeast of the Liza field, marking the 15th discovery on the Stabroek Block, an addition to the company’s previous estimated recoverable resource of more than 6 billion oil-equivalent barrels on the Stabroek Block.
Specifically, Mako-1 encountered about 164 feet of high quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir according to the company; Being drilled in 5,315 feet of water, it is located about six miles (10 kilometers) southeast of the Liza field, which was brought online on December 20.
Mike Cousins, senior vice president of exploration and new ventures at ExxonMobil commented that
New discoveries in this world-class basin have the potential to support additional developments. Our proprietary full-wave seismic inversion technology continues to help us better define our discovered resource and move rapidly to the development phase.
Additionally, the company’s Liza Phase 1 achieved its first oil on December 20, 2019 and is expected to produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day utilizing the Liza Destiny floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).
Liza Unity FPSO is currently being constructed and is expected to begin its production in mid-2022.
As the company waits for government approvals and project sanctioning of a third development, production from the Payara field could commence as early as 2023.
