Guyana should get about US$10 billion annually from oil production in a few years

By the end of the decade, Guyana should get about US$10 billion (or about G$2 trillion) annually from royalties and its share of oil profits due to production in the lucrative Stabroek Block offshore, an ExxonMobil Guyana Limited official said Tuesday.

“By the end of the decade, particularly once costs have been recovered, we expect the Government of Guyana to receive G$10 billion annually,” EMGL Vice President and Business Services Manager, John Colling, told reporters at a press engagement.

Since 2020, Guyana has received about $1.3 trillion from more than 70 lifts of profit oil and royalties. Funds go into the country’s Natural Resource Fund (NRF), and withdrawals are made intermittently by the government, per the NRF law.

Colling, in the press engagement, explained that as ExxonMobil and its coventurers recover more of their costs over time, the money Guyana gets should significantly increase. The consortium of ExxonMobil, Hess, and CNOOC invested about US$40 billion to date and recovered about US$33 billion.

Per the cost-recovery mechanism in the Production Sharing Agreement (or simply, the oil contract), up to 75% of the costs (or money invested) can be recovered or recouped as the oil produced is sold. The remaining 25% of profits is split equally between the companies and the government; the government also gets an additional two per cent in royalties from total revenues.

Once all the development costs have been recovered, Colling explained, a “larger component of the revenues” will be available for profit oil splitting between ExxonMobil Guyana, its partners, and Guyana.

At the end of 2024, EMGL generated about G$1.7 trillion in revenues and G$995.1 billion in profits. The total royalty paid by EMGL last year was G$34.1 billion.

ExxonMobil’s 2024 profit in Guyana nears G$1 trillion