Scott Dyksterhuis was satisfied. Or as satisfied as you might be when predicting what lies greater than 3 miles beneath the seabed. The then 32-year-old geoscientist for Exxon Mobil Corp. figured there was an excellent likelihood an unlimited trove of oil lay buried off the coast of Guyana, close to the place the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean Sea. Now got here the laborious half. He needed to persuade his bosses to drill a nicely that may show it. “It was high-risk,” Dyksterhuis says. “But Guyana was a casino you wanted to play in because when you win, the profits are so high.”
In late 2013 looking for oil in Guyana was amongst Exxon’s lowest priorities. Firms had drilled greater than 40 dry holes within the area. The goal formation—named Liza, after a neighborhood fish—was below a mile of water, and drilling it could value at the least $175 million. Even Dyksterhuis estimated there was solely a 1 in 5 likelihood of success. But when he was proper, it could open an oil frontier, proving a concept that the identical geology behind Venezuela’s reserves, the world’s largest, prolonged throughout the north coast of South America. Many at Exxon had no real interest in making that guess. Neither did a lot of the remainder of the oil trade.
In the present day, Liza is the world’s greatest oil discovery in a era. Exxon controls a block that holds 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil, value practically $1 trillion at present costs. The discover has remodeled Guyana from one in every of South America’s poorest nations into one that may pump extra crude per particular person than Saudi Arabia or Kuwait by 2027. Guyana is on monitor to overhaul Venezuela as South America’s second-largest oil producer, after Brazil.
Guyana has grow to be the bedrock of Exxon’s post-Covid company revival. The Texas oil big has a forty five% share of a subject that prices lower than $35 a barrel to supply, making it probably the most worthwhile exterior of OPEC. With crude presently buying and selling at $85 a barrel, the oil subject would earn a living even when the transition from fossil fuels brought about demand to break down and costs dropped by half.
The untold story of the Guyana discover’s origins—primarily based on interviews with greater than a dozen individuals concerned within the Liza nicely, most of whom have since left Exxon—reveals some stunning truths about oil’s previous and future. It reveals how others within the enterprise overestimated the shift from oil to renewables. Solely three years in the past, Exxon misplaced a battle over board seats with activist traders who argued it wasn’t doing sufficient to organize for the transition. Exxon caught to its core enterprise. “When everyone else was pulling back, we were leaning in,” says Liam Mallon, president of Exxon’s manufacturing division. Since Guyana manufacturing started on the finish of 2019, the corporate’s shares have greater than doubled, the best return amongst its supermajor friends.
This historical past suggests the problem of counting on market forces to usher in the long run of fossil fuels. The Inexperienced motion had hoped that improved expertise would assist photo voltaic, wind and different renewables supplant more and more hard-to-find oil. Environmentalists now fear that Exxon will earn a windfall from a slower vitality transition, whereas others bear the price of drilling’s hurt to the local weather and Guyana’s ecology. “Exxon is polluting the ocean and atmosphere without having to pay for the damage,” says Melinda Janki, a Guyanese lawyer who’s labored on worldwide environmental safety. (Exxon says it invests in expertise to guard the setting and meets or exceeds regulatory necessities.)
Exxon’s rivals little question have aching remorse. Virtually 30 different corporations, together with Chevron Corp., handed up the prospect to purchase into the Guyana discovery. Shell Plc, beforehand a 50% companion, walked away. Chevron is now paying $53 billion for Hess Corp., one in every of Exxon’s two companions in Guyana, which has a 30% stake within the venture. Exxon this yr filed an arbitration case in opposition to Hess, claiming it has a proper of first refusal over the stake. (Hess says that proper doesn’t apply in a merger.)
However the story of the Guyana discovery isn’t about taking swashbuckling dangers for an enormous payoff. Exxon, it seems, is as a lot a monetary engineering firm as an oil explorer. It hedged its bets, decreased its publicity and purchased itself an choice to make a fortune on an unlikely consequence.
That technique dates to a key second in 2013. Exxon’s prime geoscientists concluded that Dyksterhuis and his colleagues hadn’t made the case that drilling Liza was definitely worth the danger. Dyksterhuis was downbeat. If it didn’t drill, Exxon must hand the Stabroek block, or concession—its license to discover and drill the territory—again to Guyana’s authorities inside months. (Stabroek was the previous title of Guyana’s capital, Georgetown.)
Within the hallway after a gathering, Rudy Dismuke, a industrial adviser, pulled one of many geoscientists apart. “Would you support Liza if we could drill it for free?” he requested. “Of course,” the geoscientist replied.
And so a small group of lower- and midlevel workers discovered a method to drill for nothing. Or near it.
Like many geoscientists Rod Limbert knew that the supply rock for Venezuela’s oil—the La Luna formation—prolonged below the Atlantic into maritime territory held by Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. The straight-talking Australian grew to become fascinated with an onshore discovery in Suriname within the Nineteen Sixties, when villagers unintentionally discovered what grew to become a billion-barrel oil subject whereas drilling for water in a schoolyard.
Limbert thought the schoolyard’s oil had originated off Guyana’s continental shelf and migrated greater than 100 miles onshore over thousands and thousands of years. He took the concept to the Exxon workforce answerable for getting into new basins in mid-1997. “They had a picture of a downward-pointing thumb at the end of their presentation,” Limbert says. He contacted Guyana’s authorities about buying drilling rights anyway. “I just didn’t tell anyone,” he says.
In 1997, Guyana was one of many poorest nations in South America, nonetheless affected by the socialist and isolationist insurance policies of strongman Forbes Burnham, who rose to energy quickly after independence from the UK in 1966. Limbert and two colleagues flew from Houston to Georgetown, to amass outdated nicely logs and focus on the potential for drilling rights with the Guyana Geology and Mines Fee. “The ground floor was literally the ground floor,” Limbert says. “By that I mean the desks and chairs were on the dirt.”
The Exxon workforce additionally met Samuel Hinds, Guyana’s president, who talked largely about cricket, Guyana’s nationwide pastime. “I wasn’t in any particular hurry to talk about business, because I had no authority to do anything,” Limbert says. On returning to Texas and armed with contemporary information, Limbert gained permission to start contract negotiations for exploration rights.
Citing the legions of failed wells, Limbert pushed for and gained a extremely favorable deal. The Stabroek block supplied to Exxon was greater than 1,000 occasions larger than the typical oil block within the Gulf of Mexico. It required no upfront fee, and if Exxon struck oil, the corporate would preserve 50% of the revenue after deducting prices. It could pay the authorities a royalty of just one%. Guyana later acquired heavy criticism for the contract. “I have examined my conscience about it over a period of time, but I don’t feel bad about it,” Limbert says. “It was a complete fit for what we knew and what we didn’t know.”
The deal helped the federal government in one other method. Guyana confronted severe border disputes each with Suriname to the east and Venezuela to the west. Aligning with Exxon would imply anybody selecting a combat with Guyana would even be selecting a combat with the world’s strongest oil firm.
Guyana’s considerations proved legitimate. Suriname gunboats pressured a special oil explorer out of disputed waters between the 2 nations. Exxon couldn’t work on the block for eight years. When the Suriname battle was nearing decision in 2007, Exxon executives realized they’d must spend cash on seismic research to fulfill work necessities below the contract. They urged giving up the block to unencumber money for higher-priority explorations in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico and rising US shale basins.
Dismuke, a Texas-schooled engineer who was Exxon’s Western Hemisphere industrial adviser on the time, took one take a look at the contract with Guyana and couldn’t consider his eyes. The deal Limbert negotiated had an enormous upside. Dismuke and a colleague urged a farm-out deal that may hand a portion of the block to an organization prepared to pay for the seismic research. Exxon’s administration permitted the concept and bought 25% of Stabroek to Shell in 2008. Exxon and Shell spent the following three years decoding the seismic waves bounced off underground rock layers to grasp the area’s geology. The early information was promising, displaying indications of fossil fuels.
However this information additionally confirmed many geoscientists’ worst worry: an entire absence of structural traps. These formations are geological faults or impenetrable bands of rock that act like dams, capturing oil because it seeps by means of layers of sediment over thousands and thousands of years. With no strong lure, oil can’t accumulate in giant sufficient portions to be commercially viable. Guyana as a substitute had stratigraphic traps, essentially the most dangerous of all geological formations for an oil explorer. Though they are often safe, stratigraphic traps are refined and really troublesome to investigate on seismic charts. They usually include what’s generally known as a “thief zone” from which oil can escape.
By the late 2000s, nonetheless, the oil trade was warming to such formations. Crude was buying and selling for greater than $100 a barrel, so massive discoveries meant massive income. Know-how was enhancing. Shell determined to lift its stake within the Stabroek block to 50%. Across the similar time, two geoscientists at APA Corp., a small explorer in Houston then referred to as Apache, have been watching carefully. Tim Chisholm studied Venezuela for Exxon within the Nineteen Nineties, and Pablo Eisner had labored the area for Repsol SA. The pair needed a slice of Stabroek, however when that wasn’t an possibility, they led Apache into Suriname as a substitute.
Earlier than they might drill a nicely, Apache administration had a change of coronary heart and reduce its exploration workforce. Chisholm and Eisner have been laid off inside a half-hour of one another. Chisholm went to Hess and Eisner joined CNOOC. Every says they believed that they had unfinished enterprise.
At Exxon in 2013 one geoscientist in an organization of 75,000 individuals labored full time on Guyana. A trove of information was coming from the Shell-financed seismic research. Exxon turned to Dyksterhuis, the Australian geoscientist, to assist interpret it. He was drawn to the topic in faculty as a result of it had “every single field of science in it,” together with the physics of seismic modeling and the biology of creatures that had died thousands and thousands of years in the past, he says. “And then you go into oil and gas, you’ve got, like, big-dollar decision-making.”
One such determination got here quickly after Dyksterhuis arrived in Houston from Melbourne. Exxon, which by then had held Stabroek for greater than a decade, had a matter of months to resolve whether or not to drill an 8-inch-diameter gap someplace in an space the scale of Massachusetts.
Indicators pointed to no. Exxon was extra centered on established oil provinces, and Shell was souring on the area after drilling in French Guiana didn’t pan out. Dyksterhuis began analyzing two-dimensional seismic information shot about 5 years earlier. One prospect, Liza, stood out. The readings confirmed fluid. However what variety? Water or oil? The uncertainty prompted fixed challenges from his bosses.
Utilizing complicated laptop modeling, Dyksterhuis mixed greater than 300 3D seismic photographs to find out it was possible oil sitting on prime of water. “The more I worked it, the more I was, like, ‘There’s something going on here,’ ” Dyksterhuis says. Towards the tip of 2013, he and two colleagues offered their findings to greater than a dozen of Exxon’s prime geoscientists.
The excellent news was that Liza had a “pay zone” 90 meters (295 toes) thick filled with porous sand that fluids may transfer by means of very simply. They estimated it may include 890 million barrels of recoverable oil, value nearly $1 billion on the time. Their high-side estimate was twice as massive. The unhealthy information was there was solely a 22% likelihood of success, primarily as a result of Liza was a stratigraphic lure. It wasn’t sufficient to win the bosses’ approval, and the trio left discouraged.
Dismuke, who sat in the back of the assembly, noticed it in another way. “I thought, if this hits and the trap holds, then I’ve got 6 million more acres to explore under a very good contract,” he says. He made a plan just like the strategy in 2008: cut back the monetary draw back by discovering companions who would disproportionately pay for the nicely, in return for a stake within the block. In fact, Exxon would now be far richer if it hadn’t laid off that danger. Mallon, the Exxon oil manufacturing chief, says it could have been inappropriate to guess lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} on a single nicely, given the corporate’s many different alternatives. “You can’t sit as an armchair quarterback,” he says. “Was it right or wrong? It was the decision based on what we knew at the time.”
Administration permitted, and Exxon shortly arrange a knowledge room at its Greenspoint workplace in Houston, inviting about 30 oil corporations. Solely about 20 confirmed up. Geoscientists from every celebration obtained a daylong presentation from the Exxon workforce and a second day to investigate the info. Hess was the final to come back by means of. Chisholm grilled Dyksterhuis for greater than two hours. “He did a very good job of, I would say, not overselling it,” Chisholm mentioned in a 2020 lecture. “That was very critical to me believing. He had passion for what it was.”
In mid-2014, as Hess was contemplating getting into the block, Shell dropped a bombshell: After six years of paying for seismic information, the Anglo-Dutch supermajor needed out. The choice was “part of a broader groupwide review of our frontier exploration portfolio,” the corporate mentioned in response to questions. Exxon now had 100% of Stabroek and solely weeks earlier than it needed to inform the Guyana authorities whether or not or not it deliberate to drill.
Inside Hess, Guyana was a tricky promote, however the firm agreed to take a 30% stake. “I bet my career on it,” Chisholm says. “I would have definitely been fired if it had not worked.”
Eisner, who’d coveted Guyana since working with Chisholm at Apache, was now working at CNOOC. “Everybody was offered Stabroek, but you need a maverick, big-headed geologist banging the table, even breaking the table to say, ‘This is good,’ ” he says. “At CNOOC, that was me.” Eisner satisfied his bosses, and CNOOC took a 25% stake. Exxon’s share of Stabroek was now 45%, however crucially, the 2 newcomers agreed to fund a lot of the nicely value. With Exxon’s personal cash now largely protected, administration gave the go-ahead to drill Liza.
The nicely value $225 million. Although Exxon will find yourself investing greater than $25 billion within the Guyana venture, its preliminary outlay—the one which secured its management of the epic discovery—was fairly near the zero that the small group of Guyana believers had talked about again in 2013: lower than $100 million, in line with individuals aware of the matter. Probably a lot much less.
Exxon employed Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Champion for the job. The high-spec drill rig was so long as two soccer fields, carried 10 truckloads of cement and dirt, and will drill greater than 7 miles deep. With helicopter crews and help vessels on the prepared, the nicely was quickly costing greater than $1 million a day.
Inside Exxon it was dubbed “the well from hell.” A piece of pipe obtained caught, unable to maneuver up or down, compromising the integrity of your complete nicely. Drillers sheared off the drill bit and crammed the underside part of the nicely with cement. They misplaced gear value greater than $15 million. However the drillers made a side-track gap that saved the venture. The night time earlier than Liza reached its goal, Dyksterhuis and a colleague slept on the ground in separate assembly rooms at Exxon’s newly constructed Houston campus.
As quickly because the drill bit hit Liza on Could 5, 2015, real-time nicely information being fed again to Houston confirmed a sudden change in rock density. That meant Liza was stacked with fossil fuels. Nevertheless it wasn’t instantly clear whether or not it was oil or gasoline. To essentially hit the massive time, it needed to be oil.
A couple of hours later, the Deepwater Champion circulated drilling mud on its deck and shook out rock cuttings onto a conveyor belt. Kerry Moreland, a senior geoscientist and Dyksterhuis’ boss, seen a well-known scent within the salty sea air. “Maybe like a gas station,” she says. She placed on gloves and picked up a few of the rocks. They have been dripping in oil.
