By Kemol King
GEORGETOWN (Reuters) – Guyana exported 225 cargoes of crude oil in 2024, its energy minister said on Tuesday, as a consortium led by U.S. major Exxon Mobil continued ramping up production and completed an update at its facilities.
Latin America’s newest oil producer last year became the region’s fifth largest crude exporter after Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia, and was identified as one of the main contributors to the growth of global oil supplies.
The minister Vickram Bharrat said detailed figures on output and exports should be released later this week. He also said the government shipped 28 cargoes in 2024 from its share of the crude produced by the Exxon group.
According to LSEG data based on tanker movements, Guyana’s oil exports rose 54% to 582,000 barrels per day (bpd) last year. In 2023, the country exported 136 crude cargoes for an average of 377,000 bpd, the LSEG data showed.
Shipments last year met demand from European refiners for easy-to-process sweet crudes to replace some Middle Eastern grades, according to traders and the LSEG data.
Exxon did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Bharrat said an exploration license for Canada-based Frontera Energy and CGX Energy cannot be extended again after extra time was given for them to appraise the offshore block. Instead, the companies would have to reapply for a license.
The companies were expected to be the next consortium to start output in the country as the government tries to diversify its oil industry, currently dominated by the Exxon-led group.
The government will focus on production growth this year. The arrival of Guyana’s fourth floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility, expected in the coming months, will add 250,000 bpd of output capacity. Two more vessels are planned to be incorporated in the next two years, Bharrat said.
President Irfaan Ali’s administration is also working on legislation this year, including its gas strategy, and on advancing a gas-to-energy project following the approval of a $526 million loan by the U.S. Exports and Imports Bank last week.
(Reporting by Kemol King, writing by Marianna Parraga; additional reporting by Sheila Dang; editing by Barbara Lewis)
