ExxonMobil has taken another step towards developing billions of barrels of oil discovered on Guyana’s Stabroek block with the submission of environmental permitting applications for the future deployment of a 220,000 barrels per day floating production, storage and offloading vessel on the Payara discovery.
An environmental impact assessment report was submitted to Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the Stabroek consortium led by the US supermajor prepares to sanction a third development project in the prolific 6.7 million-acre block.
The EIA report for the Payara field confirmed plans to put a floater into production in early 2023.
Oil was first discovered in the Liza field in 2015, in water depths ranging from 1500 to 1900 metres.
Production there will begin by the first quarter of 2020 through the Liza Destiny FPSO, able to produce up to 120,000 bpd.
This will be followed by the start-up of the Liza Unity FPSO in 2022, with capacity for another 220,000 bpd.
The Payara development project is located about 207 kilometres north-east of the Guyanese capital Georgetown.
The development plan points to the drilling of up to 45 development wells, including production, water injection and gas re-injection and a subsea, umbilicals, risers, and flowlines system serving the FPSO.
The report, which provided extensive detail of environmental management plans thorough to commissioning, said it could take up to five years to drill the planned wells, beginning in 2020.
Two drillships will be deployed on this project simultaneously, although additional drillships may be used to accelerate the drilling schedule, the report said.
The phase three development includes Payara and also Pacora, Liza Deep, and the northern area of the Liza fields, the report stated.
The wells will be drilled from 10 drilling centres spanning a subsea development area of around 7800 hectares.
The FPSO will be new-built and double-hulled, with capacity to store 2 million barrels of stabilised crude, and it will use a 20-point spread mooring anchor system.
Total liquid-handling capacity will be for 270,000 bpd, plus water injection up to 250,000 bpd and water handling up to 215,00 bpd.
The FPSO and the mooring system will be designed to remain in place for at least 20 years and accommodate extreme environmental conditions.
Associated gas will be re-injected at a rate of up to 395 million cubic feet per day.
"Gas export alternatives for future development continue to be evaluated, with due consideration of the challenges related to commercialisation of associated gas," the report said.
"Any proposal for implementation of gas export would be addressed under a separate environmental authorisation process, and is therefore outside the scope of this EIA."
ExxonMobil Guyana senior director for public and government affairs Deedra Moe told Guyanese news media that the EIA documents have been submitted to the EPA for review and the company will be working with the agency as it studies the proposals.
ExxonMobil and partners Hess and CNOOC International have so far found 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent of recoverable resources on Stabroek, encompassing several different reservoirs, but exploration drilling is continuing apace.
Elsewhere on the Stabroek block, the drillship Stena Carron has been drilling the Ranger-2 well and will carry out a well test at Yellowtail, while the drillship Noble Bob Douglas is currently completing development drilling operations for Liza phase one.
A third rig, the drillship Noble Tom Madden, will next drill the Uaru-1 wildcat about 10 kilometres east of Liza.
ExxonMobil will add a fourth drillship, the Noble Don Taylor, in October 2019 to further step up exploration and appraisal work.
ExxonMobil has estimated that the area could be producing more than 750,000 bpd by 2025, with potentially five FPSOs in place.
The partners are evaluating additional development potential in other areas of the Stabroek block, including at the Turbot and Hammerhead discovery areas.
The recent Tripletail-1 wildcat found another high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir in the Turbot area of the block, and raised expectations of yet another upgrade of recoverable resource estimates for Stabroek.