Durrant Pate/Contributor

The tiny South American/ Caribbean nation of Guyana has found itself managing one of the world’s largest oil booms, which continues apace and has emerged as a top global oil producer with its offshore Stabroek Block unlocking around 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil, with signs of further growth ahead.

Oil experts say that in a decade, Guyana has gone from not being an oil-producing nation to lifting close to one million barrels per day, which saw the country overtake Ecuador, Colombia, and Argentina to become South America’s third-largest oil producer behind Brazil and Venezuela.

Production volumes will continue to expand with considerable production growth ahead for the Stabroek Block, which has been the key to Guyana’s booming hydrocarbon sector. It is here that ExxonMobil, which is the operator holding a 45% interest along with partners Chevron and CNOOC, controlling 30% and 25% respectively, made the first oil discovery in Guyana’s territorial waters during 2015. 

This was followed by a swathe of major commercially viable discoveries, which were eventually estimated to collectively contain recoverable oil resources of around 11 billion barrels. The oil discovered is light and sweet with an API gravity of 31.9 degrees and 0.59% sulfur, making it desirable in a low-emission world. Oil and gas blog, Oilprice.com, is reporting that “Exxon is currently developing four additional projects, which, with a combined production capacity of 940,000 barrels per day, will lift Guyana’s total output to 1.7 million barrels per day by 2030. That will make the former British colony South America’s second-largest oil producer.

Oil majors positioning themselves

Meanwhile, Chevron, a 30% partner in the Stabroek Block, which acquired the interest by purchasing independent oil company Hess, recently stated the prolific oil acreage contains more oil than the 11 billion barrels currently estimated. Exxon, aside from developing already sanctioned projects in the Stabroek Block, continues to conduct exploration and appraisal drilling in the prolific oil-bearing acreage.

During June 2025, the supermajor started drilling the Hamlet-1 prospect in the southeast portion of the Stabroek Block. Exxon also commenced the Lukanani-2 appraisal well for evaluating the 2022 Lukanani-1 discovery situated southeast of the Liza facility. Impressively, in a mere four years, Guyana went from first discovery with the Liza-1 wildcat well to first oil. This is a startling development for an industry where major offshore oilfields can take a decade or more to develop and bring to production. 

The consensus among oil experts is that it takes, on average, seven to 10 years to develop an offshore oil discovery so that commercial production can begin, but Guyana has done so in far less time. They say the development of the Stabroek Block is continuing at a stunning rate, with Exxon bringing its fourth project, Yellowtail online, which saw the 250,000 barrel per day ONE GUYANA Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel coming online and start pumping crude oil. 

Changes in production agreement

This month, production at Yellowtail had ramped up to full capacity. This saw Exxon announce that Guyana was now pumping 900,000 barrels per day, all from the prolific Stabroek Block. Georgetown recently revised the contracts with oil lifting companies to ensure that the country receives a far greater cut of the profits generated by the country’s vast offshore petroleum reserves. The main changes were reducing the cost of oil to 65% of all petroleum sold and bumping up royalties to 10%, while also introducing a corporate tax of 10%. 

This means no other companies can secure the beneficial terms associated with the Stabroek Block, which make it extremely profitable for Exxon and its partners. Indeed, the prolific oil acreage is estimated to possess a low average break-even price of US$30 per barrel, which is among the lowest in South America.