By Micah Maidenberg

 

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) said it has made another oil discovery in Guyana, its 16th find in the waters located near the coast of the South American nation.

The latest discovery will expand on what is already a large volume of oil and gas in the offshore Stabroek block. Exxon said Monday it would add the latest discovery to its resource estimate for the field at a later date.

The company also said it now believes its resource base in Guyana's offshore waters stands at more than more than 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent, an increase of 2 billion barrels over its previous estimate.

The new discovery at the Uaru exploration well covers 94 feet of a high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir, Exxon said.

The Uaru well is located about 10 miles northeast of the Stabroek block's Liza field, where the Irving, Tex.-based oil company began producing oil in December. That effort is now ramping up and will generate up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day in the coming months, Exxon said.

Exxon is developing the Stabroek block as part of a venture with Hess Corp. (HES) and China's CNOOC Ltd. (0883.HK.

Energy investors and companies have been focused on Guyana and its neighbor to the east, Suriname, amid a string of oil discoveries.

Earlier this month, Apache Corp. (APA) and Total SA (TOT) said they found a significant amount of oil off the coast of Suriname.

 

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 27, 2020 08:54 ET (13:54 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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