Phase 1 will produce 450 MMBO
ExxonMobil (ticker: XOM), Hess (ticker: HES) and CNOOC today announced FID for Phase 1 development of the Liza field in offshore Guyana.
Initially discovered in May 2015, the Liza field is located about 120 miles offshore from Guyana, in about 5,700 feet of water. Liza is in the Stabroek Area, a large offshore lease block owned by the three partner companies. Hess reports that Stabroek is 6.6 million acres in size, or 1,150 times the size of a standard GOM block.
120 MBOPD peak production planned
Phase 1 of development of the Liza field will involve a total of 17 wells, drilled from four drill centers. Eight wells will produce oil, while six will inject water into the reservoir and three will inject gas. A floating production, storage and offloading vessel will process production. ExxonMobil estimates Phase 1 will have peak production around 120 MBOPD. In total, the operation will recover about 450 MMBO. ExxonMobil reports that Phase 1 will cost just over $4.4 billion, including $1.2 billion for the FPSO.
Based on Hess’ reports of its share of development costs (not including the FPSO cost), the companies will spend about $370 million this year, $830 million in 2018 and $1.1 billion in 2019. The remaining $900 million will be spent in 2020 and 2021, but the timing is less certain. First oil is expected in 2020, less than five years after initial discovery.
Further discoveries support more development
Additional exploratory work is in progress, as the Stabroek block is large enough to hold many different plays. ExxonMobil reports that the recently-drilled Liza-4 well encountered nearly 200 feet of “high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. While the area explored by Liza-4 will not be developed in Phase 1, the successful result will be a major factor in considering Phase 2. With the success of Liza-4, Hess estimates gross discovered recoverable resource for the Stabroek block is between 2 and 2.5 billion barrels.
ExxonMobil is the operator of the Stabroek block, and holds a 45% interest. Hess owns a 30% stake, while CNOOC owns 25%.
