Guyana reports additional oil reserves

A fifth major offshore oilfield being developed by a consortium led by ExxonMobil at an estimated cost of US$12.7 billion will add another 1.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves to the 10-billion barrel Guyana-Suriname basin, the Guyanese government said Tuesday.

The Uaru-Mako project currently under review could come on stream in the next three years, adding as many as 63 more wells to the 30 already drilled in the Stabroek Block by the consortium, which also includes America’s Hess Corporation and China’s CNOOC.

With two fields in production and two more approved, the consortium is the first among many multinational entities seeking to exploit the massive basin, which promises to transform two small South American nations into some of the world’s largest fossil-fuel producers.

Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency released the oilfield’s specifications on Tuesday for public review, saying that Uaru-Mako has at least 1.3 billion barrels of sweet, light crude to add to the more than 10 billion barrels in recoverable reserves the consortium has estimated so far.

Current production from the first two fields is nearly 400,000 barrels per day. The agency required the consortium to take out insurance to cover the costs of any potential oil spills in those fields.