Noble Don Taylor drillship

Four mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs), made up of drillships owned by Noble Corporation and Stena Drilling, have buckled down and resumed hydrocarbon exploration at the Stabroek block off the coast of Guyana, enabling ExxonMobil Guyana, a subsidiary of America’s oil major ExxonMobil, to stay the course and continue searching for more oil and natural gas resources on South America’s North Atlantic coast.

ExxonMobil Guyana (45%) and its Stabroek block co-venturers, Hess (30%) and CNOOC (25%), have committed nearly $55 billion to develop six sanctioned offshore projects on Guyana’s Stabroek block. Once all six projects are up and running, production capacity is expected to surpass 1.3 million barrels of oil per day.

Wheels are also in motion to secure the go-ahead for the development of Hammerhead as the seventh deepwater oil project in Guyana, adding between 120,000 and 180,000 barrels per day by 2029 to raise the country’s overall production capacity bar to nearly 1.5 million bpd. Since Guyana became an oil-producing nation five years ago, ExxonMobil has drilled many wells.

On January 12, 2025, the U.S. giant restarted developmental drilling operations with the 2013-built Noble Bob Douglas drillship at the YT_3P05 well site within the Stabroek block of Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), based on the insights provided by the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD).

These drilling activities are slated to conclude on February 28, 2025, and will incorporate the support from multi-purpose subsea vessels designed for well intervention, subsea construction and equipment installation, alongside IRM and ROV services, such as Havila’s Havila Phoenix, C-Innovation’s C-Installer, and DOF’s Skandi Nomad.

Other ships assisting ExxonMobil in Guyana are Gary Rook, Russell Bouziga, Horn Island, Russell Adams, Aldemir Souza Tide, Emily Day Mc Call, Skandi Skansen, Ted Smith, C-Confidence, Breaux Tide, Paradise Island, Clarence Triche, Wine Island, Seacor Amazon, Bucha Sphit McCall, and Guyana Hero.

The well site is situated approximately 112.6 nautical miles, or 208.5 kilometers, off the coast of Guyana and covers an area of 0.29 square nautical miles, or 1 square kilometer. On the other hand, the Stena Drillmax MODU, which continued demobilization about 105.6 nautical miles, or 195.571 kilometers, offshore Guyana, was expected to depart Guyana’s EEZ on January 15, 2025.

A few days later, on January 19, 2025, ExxonMobil was set to resume developmental drilling operations at the WT_5i01 well site around 112.5 nautical miles, or 208.4 kilometers off Guyana’s coast, with the 2013-built Noble Don Taylor drillship, which is scheduled to finish this job on February 28, 2025.

The following day, the U.S. energy giant resumed drilling activities at the UA_1P02 well site approximately 108.1 nautical miles, or 200.2 kilometers, offshore Guyana with the 2014-built Noble Tom Madden drillship. These operations are expected to end on February 28, 2025.

On the same date, the company continued developmental drilling operations at the UA 2103 well site about 110.7 nautical miles, or 205.0 kilometers, off the country’s coast. ExxonMobil was also scheduled to begin conducting fiber optic cable installation operations on January 23, 2025, within the Stabroek block.

This exercise is due to conclude on March 31, 2025, and will incorporate the use of OSV IT Infinity. The cable installation area is approximately 98.57 nautical miles, or 165.90 kilometers, offshore Guyana, and covers an area of 355.30 square nautical miles.

Once January 29 rolled in, the U.S. oil major was expected to restart developmental drilling operations at the UA_1i05 well site around 108.1 nautical miles, or 200.2 kilometers, off the coast of Guyana with the Noble Bob Douglas rig. These drilling activities are set to be wrapped up on March 31, 2025.

Furthermore, ExxonMobil was anticipated to restart developmental drilling operations at the UA_2P05 drill center about 110.9 nautical miles, or 205.3 kilometers offshore Guyana, on February 2, 2025, with the Stena Carron drillship, which is slated to be done with this job on April 30, 2025.

Two days later, the firm was expected to resume drilling work at PY_2i5 drill center approximately 111.2 nautical miles, or 205.9 kilometers, off the coast of Guyana with the Noble Tom Madden drillship, which is scheduled to complete this assignment on March 31, 2025.

These three Noble drillships are among the rig quartet ExxonMobil decided to hand out more work under the commercial enabling agreement (CEA) with the offshore drilling player, which allowed the floaters to get 4.8 additional rig years of backlog in Guyana, assigned evenly to extend each rig’s contract duration from June 2027 to August 2028.

Guyana’s Office of the Prime Minister recently gave its blessing for the planned $51.2 billion investment to advance the country’s flagship gas-to-energy (GtE) project.