Noble rig duo and Stena drillship on oil & gas exploration mission for ExxonMobil off Guyana

As three mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs) press play to resume hydrocarbon search at the Stabroek block on South America’s North Atlantic coast, this enables ExxonMobil Guyana, a subsidiary of America’s oil major ExxonMobil, to keep looking for more oil and natural gas resources off the coast of Guyana, with drillships owned by Noble Corporation and Stena Drilling.

According to the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD), ExxonMobil was set to continue exploration drilling operations on December 25, 2024, at the Haimara_3 well site within the Stabroek Block of Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

The well is being drilled by Stena Drilling’s Stena Carron drillship, which is expected to finish these drilling activities on December 31, 2024. The operations will also incorporate the use of ships displaying the international signal for vessels engaged in such activities.

During this drilling task, the MODU will receive support from multi-purpose subsea vessels designed for well intervention, subsea construction and equipment installation, IRM and ROV services, such as Havila’s Havila Phoenix, C-Innovation’s C-Installer, and DOF’s Skandi Nomad. 

Other ships providing assistance to ExxonMobil in Guyana are Gary Rook, Paradise Island, Russell Bouziga, Horn Island, Wine Island, Knockout P, Russell Adams, Aldemir Souza Tide, Breaux Tide, Sanibel Island, Clarence Triche, Emily Day Mc Call, Michael Crombie McCall, Seacor Amazon, Guyana Hero, Ted Smith, Gerard Tide, C-Confidence, and Seacor Congo.

With a maximum drilling depth of up to 35,000 feet (about 10,668 meters) and a water depth of 10,000 feet (around 3,048 meters), the Stena Carron drillship features several upgrades, including managed pressure drilling, a wireline unit tower, and enhanced drilling fluid storage. 

Furthermore, ExxonMobil Guyana was due to restart its developmental drilling operations at the YT_1i07 well site within the Stabroek block with the Noble Tom Madden drillship on December 23. This is anticipated to be completed on December 31, 2024. The well lies around 109.9 nautical miles, or 203.6 kilometers, off the coast of Guyana and covers an area of 0.29 square nautical miles.

On the same date, the U.S. energy giant was also expected to resume its developmental drilling operations at the UA_3i04 well site with the Noble Sam Croft drillship, which is anticipated to be engaged in drilling activities slated to end on December 31, 2024. This well site is situated approximately 104.7 nautical miles (194.0 kilometers) off the coast of Guyana.

After ExxonMobil handed out more work to four drillships operating in Guyana under the commercial enabling agreement (CEA) with Noble, the Noble Tom Madden, Noble Sam Croft, Noble Don Taylor, and Noble Bob Douglas floaters secured 4.8 additional rig years of backlog in Guyana, assigned evenly across the four units, extending each rig’s contract duration from June 2027 to August 2028.

Moreover, ExxonMobil began maintenance activities within the Stabroek block on December 20, 2024, at the FPSO Liza Destiny, which the U.S. oil major bought from SBM Offshore recently. The work is slated to conclude on December 31, 2024. The assignment will incorporate the use of the semi-rigid general work and support vessel C-Worker 1, which will display the international signal for vessels engaged in such activity.

The area is located approximately 91.5 nautical miles (169.5 kilometers) off the coast of Guyana and covers an area of 136 square nautical miles (466.9 square kilometers). Following the first oil discovery in Guyana’s Stabroek block in 2015, ExxonMobil has found more than 30 major discoveries, encompassing recoverable resources of over 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe). 

The FPSO Liza Destiny has been working in Guyanese waters since December 2019 as part of the Liza Phase 1 development. ExxonMobil is the operator and holds a 45% interest in the Stabroek block, with Hess Guyana Exploration (30%) and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana (25%) as its partners. Since Hess is determined to merge with Chevron, the latter may become ExxonMobil’s new partner next year.

The oil major plans to have six FPSO vessels with a gross production capacity of over 1.2 million barrels of oil per day online on the block by the end of 2027. However, the firm has also hinted at the possibility of having up to ten such units active in Guyana’s waters.

ExxonMobil is also working to secure the go-ahead for the development of Hammerhead as the seventh deepwater oil project. If approved, this will add between 120,000 and 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2029, raising the country’s overall production capacity bar to nearly 1.5 million bpd.