DOF Subsea will deploy two multi-purpose support vessels (MPSVs) to the buoyant offshore deepwater market in Guyana under a three-year charter from Esso Exploration & Production Guyana Ltd
Under the deal announced in October, DOF Subsea will perform inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR), well intervention support, and light subsea construction activities to support the growing subsea infrastructure in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana.
ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd is operator and holds 45% interest in the 6.6M acre Stabroek Block. Other shareholders are Hess Guyana Exploration, with a 30% interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana, which holds the remaining 25% stake.
This year alone, seven new discoveries have been made in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, which will add to the previously announced gross discovered recoverable resource estimate of approximately 11Bn barrels of oil equivalent.
The newest discoveries, Seabob-1 and Kiru-Kiru-1 wells, were reported in July. Seabob-1 was drilled in 1,421 m of water by the drillship Stena Carron and is located about 19 km southeast of the Yellowtail Field. Kiru-Kiru-1 was drilled in 1,756 m of water by drillship Stena DrillMAX and is located 5 km southeast of the Cataback-1 discovery. Drilling operations at Kiru-Kiru are continuing.
DOF Subsea said two MPSVs, with 250-tonne active heave-compensation cranes and two work-class remotely operated vehicle systems will be deployed in Guyana for the contract, which contains options for two more years. The first of these MPSVs will be mobilised in late October, while the second vessel is planned to commence in January 2023.
Calling Guyana an “important and flourishing” market, DOF Subsea chief executive Mons Aase said, “The award further underlines DOF’s leading position in the IMR segment.”
The contracts raise DOF Subsea’s estimated firm backlog to Nkr2.7Bn (US$250M).
Meanwhile, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana and its partners have four sanctioned developments on the Stabroek Block. The Liza Phase 1 development, which began production in December 2019, reached its new production capacity of more than 140,000 barrels of oil per day (b/d) in Q2 2022 following production optimisation work on the Liza Destiny floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO). The Liza Phase 2 development, which achieved first oil inFebruary 2022using the FPSO Liza Unity, reached its production capacity of 220,000 b/d in July. The third development at Payara will come online in late 2023 using FPSO Prosperity, with a production capacity of 220,000 b/d. The fourth development, Yellowtail, will be the largest development to date and is expected to come online in 2025, using FPSO One Guyana with a production capacity of 250,000 b/d.
At least six FPSOs with a production capacity of more than 1M b/d are expected to be online on the Stabroek Block in 2027, with the potential for up to 10 FPSOs to develop gross discovered recoverable resources.
