in the Stabroek Block with the Lancetfish-1 well which intersected with 92 feet of oil-bearing sandstone. Nonetheless, the Kokwari-1 wildcat well drilled in the northwest section of the Stabroek Block 37 miles from the Liza-1 well came up dry. Exxon also spudded the Basher-1 and Blackfin-1 exploratory wells during the first quarter 2023. Those form part of a 10 well exploration campaign in the Stabroek Block.
Exxon’s oil operations in the Stabroek Block are delivering a tremendous economic and fiscal windfall for Georgetown. The impoverished South America microstate with a population of over 800,000 emerged during 2020 as the world’s fastest growing economy reporting that gross domestic product expanded by a whopping 43.5% that year. Since then, Guyana’s economy has expanded at a stunning rate.
The tremendous revenue from oil flowing into Guyana is being invested in a flurry of infrastructure projects including highways, a deep-water port and a $1.9 billion natural gas to energy project. The deep-water port under construction in Eastern Guyana at the town of Berbice is a key piece of urgently needed energy industry infrastructure., a 78% owned subsidiary of Canadian intermediate oil producer Frontera Energy.
Guyana is among the poorest countries in South America with swathes of the population living in poverty without access to basic public goods such as clean running water and electricity. Petroleum is delivering an economic bonanza which will lift Guyana out of poverty and see it become South America’s wealthiest country, a mantle once held by Venezuela. There are fears this vast oil wealth will spark the endemic corruption as well as economic and political dysfunction which caused .