Guyana: Oil exports explode, and Europe celebrates
Five years after an Exxon-led consortium produced the first oil offshore Guyana, the country is pumping more than 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and has become South America's fifth-largest oil exporter.
Guyana and ExxonMobil expect oil production to rise to 1.3 million bpd by 2030, doubling current production volumes. As much as Libya now produces.
As production has increased, Guyana's crude oil exports have increased in recent years. More than half of these exports are destined for Europe, where refiners have increasingly valued Guyanese crudes: Liza, Unity Gold and Payara Gold. These crudes are sweeter and lighter than those from other South American exporters, such as Mexico or Colombia.
Since late 2019, when Guyana exported its first cargo of crude oil, the country has become Latin America's fifth largest exporter, after Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia.
Guyana's plans to develop its thriving oil industry do not stop at increasing its share of the global oil market.
The country and ExxonMobil are evaluating gas-to-shore projects to power the fertilizer and aluminum industries and to power and cool data centers.
As it develops these plans for natural gas use, Guyana is ramping up crude oil production and shipments.
Last year, Guyana's exportsincreased by 54% compared to the previous year, thanks to strong European demand.
Crude exports averaged about 582,000 bpd in 2024, as ExxonMobil and its partners Hess Corp and China's CNOOC continued to ramp up production from the offshore Stabroek block, where more than 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent have been discovered so far.
Guyana crude has found a favorable market in Europe due to proximity, quality and ease of access to sellers, an anonymous Latin American crude trader told Reuters in January.
“Europe is the ideal market for Guyana crude,” the trader noted.
Guyana's lighter, sweeter crude has increased its market share in Europe and last year the majority of Guyana's exports went to Europe. 66% of Guyana's oil was shipped to Europe in 2024, compared to 62% of Guyana's oil going to Europe in 2023.
In January 2025, Europe's share of Guyana's exports was even higher, at 75%, as fifteen out of twenty cargoes were taken from Europe, according to ship tracking services cited by Guyanese outlet OilNOW .
Guyanese crude is set to further increase its market share in Europe and globally in the coming years, as the country's production is expected to rise to over 1 million bpd by the end of the decade.
Guyana already produces more than 660,000 bpd of crude oil from the block operated by Exxon. Guyana's production capacity is expected to exceed 1.7 million barrels per day, with gross production growing to 1.3 million barrels per day by 2030, according to Exxon.
According to the US super major, Guyana is now the third largest oil producer per capita in the world.
Increased oil production and exports helped Guyana's economy grow by 43.6% last year, marking the fifth consecutive year of double-digit GDP growth, which began just as Guyana became an oil producer.
Oil and gas development continues, with Exxon considering further projects to exploit the riches of crude oil and natural gas offshore Guyana.
Exxon and its partners expect to produce up to 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas and 290,000 barrels per day of condensate at the Longtail project, the consortium's eighth project offshore Guyana, which will also be the largest natural gas development in the prolific Stabroek block.
Some of the more than a dozen discoveries in the Stabroek Block feature good natural gas resources, which Exxon has decided to develop for onshore power generation and potentially for LNG export in the future.
Last month, Alistair Routledge, president and chief executive officer of ExxonMobil Guyana, said the multinational plans to increase gas production in Guyana and may consider exporting gas at a later stage.
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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/guyana-esplode-lexport-di-petrolio-e-leuropa-festeggia/ on Mon, 17 Mar 2025 11:00:02 +0000.