Exxon’s Guyana Oil Discovery May Be 12 Times Larger Than Economy

 

 Andrew Rosati and Joe Carroll 

July 21, 2015 — 2:28 PM EDTUpdated on July 22, 2015 — 12:01 AM EDT

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An Exxon Mobil Corp. discovery in the Atlantic Ocean off Guyana may hold oil and natural gas riches 12 times more valuable than the nation’s entire economic output.

The Liza-1 well, which probably holds the equivalent of more than 700 million barrels of oil, may begin producing crude by the end of the decade, Raphael Trotman, the South American country’s minister of governance, said in an interview Monday. The prospect would be on par with a recent Exxon find at the Hadrian formation in the Gulf of Mexico, and would be worth about $40 billion at today’s international crude price.

Guyana produces no oil and its gross domestic product of $3.23 billion in 2014 ranked between Burundi and Swaziland, according to the World Bank. Exxon, which has a market value of $341 billion, has declined to provide an estimate for Liza-1 since describing the discovery as “significant” in a May 20 statement.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-21/exxon-s-guyana-oil-find-may-be-worth-12-times-the-nation-s-gdp