With the start of oil production here slated for March, 2020, ExxonMobil says that a market price of even US$40 per barrel would still yield significant returns given that the cost is “very low.”
“When you think about some of the deepwater areas that we’re in, Guyana is a great example. While we’ve had that acreage for a while, some of our technology that we’ve applied to sub-surface imaging has really positioned us well to see things that others historically had not seen there. And you’ve seen the result. We’ve got six very substantial discoveries there and the economics are very robust. At a $40 flat rail, we’re talking about double digit returns. The cost of supply for Guyana is very low. And I think we are – as with our partners are very well positioned to capitalize on it and we’re leveraging our global deepwater capabilities in doing so,” Jeff Woodbury, Vice President of Investor Relations and Secretary at Exxon Mobil Corporation, told analysts during a February 2nd conference call on the company’s Fourth Quarter earnings for 2017.
He was at the time responding to a question about the company’s investment in deepwater exploration against the cost.
