Operator and majority shareholder in the Stabroek Block, ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) announced on Thursday that it made $614 billion in profits for 2023.
During a media engagement this morning, the company’s Vice President (VP) and Business Services Manager, Phil Rietema shared insights into the company’s financial statements as of December 31, 2023. He noted that in the previous year, the company earned $577 billion. Income tax expenses amounted to $138 billion, which is more than double the $59 billion recorded in 2022. It must be noted that all of Exxon’s expenditures which includes exploration, production costs and income tax expenses are paid for by the government or Guyana.
Oil operations managed to rake in $1.1 trillion in revenues in 2023 which is a significant increase from the $876 billion recorded in 2022. Furthermore, Exxon’s exploration costs amounted to $55 billion, which accounted for 5 dry wells drilled last year, according to Rietema.
The VP was keen to note that its 2023 financials is a good sign for the company. “It’s important to know that we continue to reinvest—in talking about our profits. We’ve had another good year, another profitable year,” Rietema noted.
As the company continues to reinvest its profits in the Guyana economy he said about $3 trillion of investment have been made to date along with $1.2 trillion in profits. “And so if you put those next to each other, we’re still operating in the red, you know, we still do not have a net cash flow from our investments. And this just really underscores that the contract—the Stabroek Block contract is doing what it’s meant to do,” he guided.
Noting the gradual increase in profits over the years, especially since its first profit ever recorded in Guyana (in 2022) was $132 billion, he noted that it was a result of higher production from the oil platforms operating offshore.
As for productions costs which were pegged at $41 billion in 2023, Rietema stated that despite it being lower than expected, all targets were met in the Stabroek Block operations. This he said included, the successfully start up of the Payara project in November 2023–ahead of schedule. The project which saw $9 billion investment, increased Guyana’s production to 600,000 barrels per day by end of year.
In response to questions posed by the media on future exploration, the Vice President asserted that EMGL is committed to fully exploring the extent of the Stabroek Block. “The Stabroek Block agreement incentivizes us to do that, and we continue to invest in mechanization wells and you know….we have we have some underway right now as we speak, and we have further exploration wells planned into the next years.”
