Located on the northern coast of South America and bordering Brazil, Venezuela, and Suriname, Guyana has become a major player in the increase of the world’s crude oil supply. Beginning in 2019, Guyana has expanded its production of crude oil, all from the Stabroek block, to 645,000 barrels per day (b/d) as of early 2024.
From 2020 to 2023, Guyana’s crude oil output climbed by an average of 98,000 barrels per day, placing it as the third fastest growing non-OPEC producing nation during that time. The main driver of Guyana’s recent economic growth has been the production of crude oil. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports that Guyana experienced the greatest real GDP growth in the world in 2022, with a growth rate of 62.3%. More than 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels of recoverable natural gas and oil are estimated to exist in Guyana, and developers are still investigating the nation’s offshore waters. The oil and gas deposits that have been found in Guyana are presently situated offshore in the Atlantic Ocean’s Guyana-Suriname Basin.
In the Stabroek block, at what is now the Liza project, ExxonMobil made the first major oil discovery in offshore Guyana in 2015. More than thirty more offshore oil and natural gas discoveries have been made within the Stabroek block by ExxonMobil and its partners, Hess and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), since that time.
Three floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels—Liza Destiny, Liza Unity, and Prosperity—provide Guyana’s oil. These boats extract natural gas and oil from the Liza and Payara projects. To sustain its production, all associated natural gas is reinjected into wells and used as on-site fuel. A planned project would use a pipeline to transport related natural gas onshore to processing facilities. By the end of 2027, the block’s partners hope to have developed three more projects: Yellowtail, Uaru, and Whiptail, bringing the total production capacity to about 1.3 million b/d. Should the enhanced output materialise, Guyana would overtake Brazil as the region’s top producer of crude oil in both Central and South America.
