Hess Strikes Oil Anew Offshore Guyana

Hess Corp. said Wednesday it had made another oil discovery in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, but another drilling returned no commercial prospect.

"The Lancetfish-1 well encountered approximately 92 feet of oil bearing sandstone reservoir. The well was drilled in 5,843 feet of water by the Noble Don Taylor and is located approximately 4 miles southeast of the Fangtooth discovery", it said in a press release.

This was the second Stabroek discovery this year. Hess announced the Fangtooth SE-1 discovery January 25.

But Hess added in Wednesday's announcement: "The Kokwari-1 exploration well was drilled during the quarter and did not encounter commercial quantities of hydrocarbons."

It planned to drill about 10 exploration and appraisal wells on Stabroek this year, as well as two wells in the Gulf of Mexico and one offshore Canada's Newfoundland island, according to a budget announcement January 24 allotting $550 million for 2023 exploration and appraisal.

In 2022 nine discoveries were made on the block, where Hess has a 30 percent interest, operator ExxonMobil holds 45 percent and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Ltd. 25 percent. The latest were the Sailfin-1 and Yarrow-1 wells, as announced October 26 by Hess and ExxonMobil.

Hess' inventory offshore Guyana contributed 112,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) to the company's total net production of 374,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in the first quarter of 2023. The output offshore Guyana, from Stabroek Block and the Liza field, was more than triple the corresponding 2022 quarter's 30,000 bopd, according to Wednesday's announcement.

"The third development, Payara, which will utilize the Prosperity FPSO [floating production storage and offloading] with a production capacity of approximately 220,000 gross bopd, is targeted for startup early in the fourth quarter... The fourth development, Yellowtail, was sanctioned in April 2022 and will utilize the ONE GUYANA FPSO with a production capacity of approximately 250,000 gross bopd, with first production expected in 2025", the USA company said.

"Government and regulatory approvals are expected very soon for a fifth development, Uaru, with a production capacity of approximately 250,000 gross bopd", Hess added.

It sold nine cargos of petroleum from Guyana in January-March 2023, from two in the first quarter of 2022.

New York-listed Hess collected $405 million in exploration and production net income in the first quarter of 2023, down from $460 million in January-March 2022 despite higher production as prices fell.

"Full year net production is now forecast to be in the range of 365,000 boepd [barrels of oil equivalent per day] to 375,000 boepd, compared with previous guidance of 355,000 boepd to 365,000 boepd primarily due to strong operational performance in the first quarter of 2023", Wednesday's release said.

Hess closed 1.26 percent higher to $142.95 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday with a three-week high of 2,426,535 volumes exchanged.