GUYANA – ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC in 2023 pocketed a whopping US$6.5 billion in profits from the world’s most exciting and rapidly developing basin, the Stabroek Block.
On Thursday, ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL), with a 45% interest in the Block, revealed its financial statements, highlighting an after-tax profit of $615 billion or approximately US$3 billion. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30% interest, and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited holds 25% interest.
This means that the three partners together walked away with approximately $1.4 trillion or US$6.5 billion in 2023.
In the meantime, the government of Guyana, that is contractually poised to benefit from 50% of the profits generated in the block, was only paid US$1.6 billion in oil revenue during 2023. Notably, this sum also includes the 2% royalty.
In keeping with the provision of the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), the government of Guyana is entitled to 50% of profits generated in the Stabroek Block and two percent royalty on all petroleum produced and sold. It must be noted that ExxonMobil first deducts 75% of the monthly revenue to recover its investments in the block- the remaining 25% revenue is then split with Guyana.
Although the government has criticized the lopsided arrangement, it has bluntly refused to renegotiate the fiscal terms to ensure the country benefits fairly from its resources.
President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge said, “It has been an extraordinary year of progress and achievements. Our Guyana investments and unrivalled development success continue to deliver transformational value to Guyana and contribute to secure, reliable and diverse global energy supplies.”
According to him, the highlight of 2023 was the Payara project, starting up safely ahead of schedule. Payara is the company’s third deepwater development in the Stabroek Block and has pushed daily production to over 645,000 barrels per day (bpd) on average.
To date, the ExxonMobil Guyana-led Stabroek Block consortium has committed to investing more than US $55 billion in 6 offshore development projects (Kaieteur News)…[+]