16 February, 2022 – Georgetown, Guyana – This week the Guyana International Energy Conference & Exhibition took place with an array of leadership from across governments and industry presenting. In addition to Guyana government officials, led by President Dr. Irfan Ali, at the podium were the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo; Prime Minister of the Republic of Barbados, the Honorable Mia Amor Mottley; the President of the Republic of Suriname, His Excellency Chandrikapersad Santokhi; Lars Mangal, CEO of TOTALTEC Guyana; Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil; Robert Dudley, former BP CEO and Chair Oil and Gas Climate Initiative; and Dr. Daniel Yergin, Vice-Chairman IHS Markit and Chair CERAWeek.
A number of key themes emerged during the week, recognizing the convergence of ongoing global energy needs being met by hydrocarbons, the need for managing climate risks, and sustainable development of Guyana for the benefit of its people in the long term.
Guyana Leadership Highlight Key Issues and Strategies
President Dr. Irfan Ali made clear that Guyana is ‘open for business’ and welcomes both regional and international investors. The case was made for the importance of investment to Guyana, but that it be managed.
“We welcome every single investor, be it Exxon, be it the international investors, Hess, every single stakeholder whether your regional, international, we welcome you, but all we are saying is that that space for technological transformation, collaboration, local growth, and competitive and increased productivity must be built into the system to bring benefit to the people of the country.”
He continued on the theme of the Guyana Low Carbon Development Strategy, which includes broadening the country’s economic base and reducing its dependence on fossil fuels.
“The wealth from oil and gas will be used to achieve these objectives and broaden the economic platform that drives the current and future growth of our country. In this regard – agriculture, mining, forestry, fisheries, aquaculture, information communication technology, manufacturing, tourism, education and health services are key sectors of focus. We have committed to reducing our dependency on fossil fuels by 70% by the year 2027 and 90% by the year 2030. We are not shying away from our global responsibility.”
In his speech to the assembly, Guyana Vice-President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo spoke to a range of issues critical to the future of Guyana. Among them were guiding principles for the next phase of production sharing agreement (PSA) models (likely out later this year), aligning investor returns with risks, joint projects with Suriname related to gas usage, and where Guyana stands in terms of net carbon emissions.
“And even with us producing one million barrels of oil per day with all the emissions using current technology, we will still be net zero because of the nature of our forest and the carbon sink, which our President spoke about; 19 gigaton storage on an annual emission.” He continued, “… because we believe climate change is real and the faster you get to a decarbonised world, the better for the entire planet, then we can avoid catastrophic changes to the climate. We support carbon price and a strong global carbon price. We have advocated for this for many years and we support it.”
ExxonMobil CEO Highlights Successes and Opportunities
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods spoke to key issues from their perspective as a global leader in energy exploration and development.
Guyana-Suriname basin remains largely unexplored, also indicated by United States Geological Survey research work.
Guyana resource development pace is unprecedented - targeting 1 million BOPD by end of this decade.
ExxonMobil is committed to sustainable development, including application of low carbon technologies.
ExxonMobil has produced a detailed ‘Advancing Climate Solutions 2022 Progress Report’ (ExxonMobil Climate Solutions Report ) that sets out how they plan to achieve ‘Net-Zero’ by 2050. A number of assets are specifically referenced, including Guyana:
Quoted from the report; “ExxonMobil’s deepwater oil and gas developments are being designed to perform in the first quartile for greenhouse gas intensity. Offshore Guyana, the Liza Unity floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel was awarded the SUSTAIN-1 notation by the American Bureau of Shipping. It is the first FPSO in the world to achieve this recognition for sustainability of its design and operational procedures.”
TOTALTEC CEO Highlights Petrotechnical Skills Need in Panel Session
In a well attended panel discussion titled ‘Skills needed for the progress of the energy industry in Guyana’, TOTALTEC CEO Lars Mangal spoke of experience to date and how it informs the future. Key points included:
Building the base of skills needed for the long term.
TOTALTEC led programs that have trained more than 1,000 Guyanese.
The importance of building a ‘safety culture’.
Examples of skills development programs from other countries.
The need to start a focused, long term program to develop petrotechnical skills.
Regarding petrotechnical skills, Mangal was clear on what is needed. “The biggest skills gap is in developing Guyanese petrotechnical expertise. Directly related to that, Guyana needs to own all our subsurface and production data. Guyana must be able to control the multi-decade future of our offshore resource. ExxonMobil and other international operators are primarily responsible to their shareholders. Their plans and actions to develop deepwater oil are based on this reality.”
Mangal then summarized Reservoir Recovery Factors - how much oil is produced as a per-cent of what is in place - which has not had sufficient visibility, given all the excitement over initial successes and gains in local content.
"Recovery factors can vary from less than 10% to the range of 80%. Guyana must have the competence to engage in these discussions and decisions. A few Guyanese geoscientists working in the operator offices considered as ‘local content in geoscience’ only hides this issue. Like sovereign wealth, Norway is a good example in technical leadership in recovery factors.”
Additional Resources Related to the Guyana Energy Conference & Exhibition
Guyana International Energy Conference & Exhibition website
Articles summarizing presentations by Guyana and other country leadership can be found on The Office of The President web page on the Guyana Department of Public Information website.
ExxonMobil The Advancing Climate Solutions - 2022 Progress Report website and the 2022 progress report ExxonMobil 2022 Climate Solutions Report
About TOTALTEC
TOTALTEC is focused on the success of the energy industry in Guyana for the benefit of the country, its people, and partner companies. It does this through three areas: people, partnerships, and facilities. Qualified and motivated Guyanese develop through the International Petroleum & Maritime Academy, where more than 600 have been trained. Partnerships prioritize products and services that are starting points to grow from, creating new Guyanese led companies, for example Jaguar Oilfield Services. Facilities include Guyana Shore Base Inc (GYSBI, also a partnership) providing a complete range of services to offshore operations. The TOTALTEC 94% Guyanese workforce includes 6 nationalities with over 160 years of international oilfield experience. https://www.totaltec-os.com
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