By Kemol King
The cash machine that is Guyana’s Stabroek Block kept humming in 2024, pumping out over US$17.7 billion in revenues for its three foreign operators: ExxonMobil, Hess, and CNOOC. This is a steep climb from the US$11.25 billion they managed the previous year, driven by surging production.
According to data compiled from the financial statements of the three companies’ local subsidiaries, total expenses last year amounted to just under US$4.92 billion. That left a combined profit before taxation of approximately US$12.8 billion, a margin that shows the profitability of the Stabroek Block even as production is set to triple by the end of the decade. The companies recorded US$2.39 billion in income tax expenses. But under the terms of the petroleum agreement with the Government of Guyana, these are not traditional tax payments.
The contract allows the oil companies to have their income taxes paid through the government’s share of profit oil. In effect, this waives their tax burden. It also means that the profit before taxation of US$12.8 billion may be the clearest representation of the group’s real earnings. Still, after accounting for the contractual tax mechanism, the companies booked a final combined profit of approximately US$10.4 billion for the year.
ExxonMobil, the operator of the block, recorded profit of approximately US$4.7 billion in revenue. Hess followed with almost US$3.1 billion, while CNOOC earned US$2.5 billion. ExxonMobil holds a 45% stake and acts as operator. Hess holds 30%, while CNOOC holds the remaining 25%. This breakdown informs how the revenue and profits are shared, with Exxon naturally taking the lion’s share of the returns.
Fueling this performance was another strong year of oil output. Production averaged 616,000 barrels per day (bpd). In the first four months of 2025, output rose slightly to 626,000 bpd. But the real surge is expected to come later this year, when the Yellowtail development, the fourth approved project in the Stabroek Block, begins production. Yellowtail is designed to add 250,000 bpd, which would push total Stabroek output close to about 900,000 bpd by year-end.
Guyana, for its part, brought in US$2.57 billion in oil revenues in 2024. Of that, US$348 million came from a 2% royalty on gross production, while the rest came from the sale of the government’s share of profit oil.
