Guyana approved on Thursday a 12 billion dollar investment plan by the American-Chinese consortium led by Exxon for the development of the Uaru offshore oil site, Bharrat Jagdeo, vice-president of this small South American country, confirmed to AFP.
“This was done (approval) after a rigorous analysis by external consultants and the documents will be made public as we have done for all other licenses,” the vice president said. The consortium is composed of ExxonMobil, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and the American Hess. “This is a massive investment in our country,” he stressed.
According to the consortium, the Uaru fields, discovered in 2020 and 2021 and located offshore Guyana, should eventually produce 250,000 barrels per day.
With a population of some 800,000, Guyana, located in the northeast of South America, has the world’s largest per capita reserves. Experts estimate that the Guyana-Suriname Basin contains about 15 billion barrels of oil reserves associated with significant gas deposits. However, neighboring Suriname is impatiently awaiting major investment decisions on its sites.