Sep 28, 2025
Kaieteur News – Better late than never is a saying that comforts. Often, those who were interested have moved on, and what develops later doesn’t generate as much interest, as when the issue was hot. The issue is how much oil does Guyana have, and it is back on the front page, after a long absence. How many more billions of barrels ExxonMobil has found since its last disclosure in 2024 of a discovery, with the 500M Bluefin find? Some Guyanese are pushing for answers, but neither the PPPC Government nor ExxonMobil is as excited as before to talk about new oil discoveries, which popped up in the media, as if on some accelerated schedule.
In 2022, the company announced nine new discoveries in the rich Stabroek Block, for a total of 3.4B barrels of oil, according to S&P. It was a banner year for local oil discoveries, with Guyana a staple in global news headlines. In 2023, new oil discoveries dropped from nine to three, with a mere 800M barrels added to Guyana’s reserves. In brief, there was a 66% decline in discoveries from 2023 to 2022, and a 76% fall in the quantity of oil found. It is a dizzying drop, and silence has reigned regarding why there is what we will describe as this barren discovery patch.
Undoubtedly, oil is not like shells on a sea shore. It is not begging to be picked up, due to the physical proof of so much of this precious, and in demand commodity, strewn all around. We appreciate that exploring for oil can be a tedious, frustrating, and thankless undertaking. It can be a hit-and-miss operation, with many dry holes as the reward, before commercial strikes of significance are made, if any at all. All that is acknowledged, but what bothers is that discoveries have plummeted so steeply and so quickly. More projects have been approved; more billions have been charged against Guyana’s oil revenues. Those indicate that ExxonMobil’s field of operation has expanded, with its search for new oil intensified. Given the time that has elapsed since the last announcement of an oil discovery, alongside the new official clearances, Guyanese are living through what looks and sounds like a first. A series of fevered activity, but nothing to show for all that effort.
A fair question is whether the now legendary Stabroek Block is not such a legend after all. In other words, the riches attached to it have been blown out of proportion, and the current lack of new discoveries is a sign of more of the same to come. Different Guyanese at different times have weighed in to assert that there are more billions of barrels of oil equivalent in the Stabroek Block, and not the 11.6B that is the last number from the government. One former top politician declared that the true reserves stood at 15 billion barrels, for a start. More recently, another former senior political figure advanced the position that Guyana’s true oil reserves are being hidden from citizens, and that those reserves could be double the standing 11.6B barrel figure, and even three times as much.
We wonder what is behind this new post-election position. This paper is on record with questions on new discoveries and the real level of Guyana’s oil reserves. There wasn’t much energy displayed by political figures when the reserve issue was repeatedly raised, when any type of sustained public interest could have helped squeeze some answers from the PPPC Government’s oil spokespeople, and from ExxonMobil itself. All that the company allowed itself to offer was that it was prioritizing its interests on ‘monetizing known oil and gas assets.’ It is nimble way to not answer directly whether more oil was discovered and how much of it. Further, ExxonMobil limited itself to saying that it has a duty to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, once there are significant discoveries.
Meanwhile, ExxonMobil’s leaders have been selling the world on Guyana’s oil. From ‘gems’ to ‘crown jewels’ have been used to convey the magnitude of what is locked below the sea. Apparently, the gems and jewels are deeper underwater, and proving harder to find, with the discoveries and barrels now like needles in haystacks.
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