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Let's turn to the energy sector. A little bit of tension in the energy sector, Venezuelan President Nicola Maduro threatening to bar Exon Mobil from expanding in Guyana. The oil giant is looking to grow development in the South American countries offshore reserves, expecting crude outpert to hit one point two million barrels a day by twenty twenty eight. Venezuela has continued to make territorial claims about the region, stretching
back to colonial types. Joining us to discuss Exon's big opportunity in the region is Liam Mallett, the president of Exon Mobil. Upstream from the Guyana Energy Conference, Liam, wonderful to catch up with you, sir. I want to go back something like ten years and start in late spring, I think May of twenty fifteen when this discovery was first made by you and a team at Exon. Liam, Since then, can you give us some size and scope just how big the opportunity is in this part of the world.
Yeah, Jonathan, thanks for the time, and good morning to everyone. Firstly, I think Jonathan, just a little bit of context. You know, this energy concept, energy demand continuing to grow as the world's population grows, and we continue to focus on lifting people out of poverty, and oil and gas a fundamental component of that mix, and from our perspective, that will also continue to grow, but very importantly, at the same time as we continue to grow, it lower and lower
the emissions intensity of that oil and gas. And nowhere, Jonathan, a greater example than right here in Guyana. You know, this is this is a deep water you know, this is technology play at the extreme out of two and a half thousand meters of water, and we've been extraordinarily successful in a very short time. You think about you know, today we're producing over six hundred thousand barrels a day. That's gone from zero to six hundred thousand barrels in
four years. And the average development time from when we discover a well to actually bringing it online and putting that oil in the market is less than five years. That's about half the industry average. So you know, this is a is a country that blessed with fantastic rocks, the rocks that produce the oil. You know, a great partnership, great supportive government policies. We're doing it with lower emissions.
We're spreading the benefits across the country. Is it is the kind of success, the kind of opportunity that comes along pretty rarely in a lifetime.
Elam, Do you expect this to become the top producing country for exon outside of the United States pretty soon?
Well, I mean it's certainly right now. It's in our top three deep water developments around the world, and you know, at the pace that we're continuing to grow, Jonathan, you know, over the next couple of years, it'll be right up there with the Permian in terms of the actual magnitude of the production. So very competitive, very exciting, and importantly doing it with leading emissions intensity.
There's a real question about some of these security concerns, given the fact that there have been some serious threats from venez vel Esmaduro talking about your exploration of the region. What kind of discussions do you have with the United States to ensure that your contract really gets enforced and you're able to produce the amount of oil that you would like.
Yeah, Well, you know, we're staying very focus. We've been very clear, we're staying very focused on executing our operations within our defined contract area. That's what we've been doing. That's what we intend to continue to do. And you know, as we talked about, this development has many years ahead of it and we're not going anywhere. So you know, fundamentally we're we're delivering and we're developing, and we're continuing to spread the benefits to Gana within our area of operations.
You know, the matter for discussion with the borders is really a government matter of course. You know, we take the necessary precautions from an operational perspective, you know, to the extent we can. But fundamentally, our focus on is on doing what we say we're going to do, doing that within our approved contract area, and continuing to do that.
And that's the reason why we're talking about this is because Venezuela's president was talking about barring you from exploring and war waters in particular that it was talking about near Guyana, right off the coast that it claims is its own. Are you planning on exploring those areas? Is this a point of contention that you're talking to the State Department or is that not in your purview? And you can continue with the production that you have planned without that.
Those those wells that got discussed are in our contract area, and we do plan on proceeding with them here in the coming years.
But are you.
Concerned about Guyana's ability to defend itself. It's not just the rhetoric from Nicholas Maduro, it's the fact that we have seen in satellite imagery him building up his own military on the border.
You know, again, that's honestly a matter for the governments. Clearly, you know, given the nature of operations, were informed as to the nature of those discussions. We've been pleased with the discussions. We're very supportive of Ghana's position that this should be resolved through the j process and will continue to stay engaged with them.
Elliam. One thing that you mentioned one of the conversation is the technology required to explore these deposits.
Liam.
I think that's really interesting because if you go back to I think it was twenty eighteen when THEIMF basically came out and said the terms of the twenty sixteen deal between Exon and the government and Guyana was too favorable towards Exon, that the royalty share wasn't faithorfble enough for the government. Do you think the current situation actually to go back in time, say four or five six years, the current situation justifies that existing agreement absolutely.
You know, this is a risk reward business and you know this was a front you said it yourself, Jonathan, this was less than twenty fifteen nine years ago. This was a frontier, deepest water in the world type proposition that only companies with our kind of technology capabilities, are financial capabilities could take on. And the contract was appropriate for that risk. And as we've continued to explore, you know, we are successful parts of the block, we are not
successful in other parts of the block. So this remains a frontier area that is still very early in its expiration and its development stage. So this type of risk reward is very appropriate for the nature of what we're doing here in Ghana.
Liam, you've talked about developments like this helping countries like Guyana get out of poverty certain elements of the West, and you've seen this from policymaker after policymaker, government after government want to phase out fossil fuels before Guyana and countries like Ghana have had the opportunity to develop the opportunity in front of them. Now, Liam, I just wondered your thoughts on that and clearly as an oil producer yourself, you're going to have to talk to your book a
little bit. But Liam, I do wonder what the government's been telling you about that. Do they have to do this quickly? Are they worried about how fast the timeline they've actually got to explore and develop this?
Yeah, I think it's the mixed question Jonathan. Again, you know, first of all, we are developing these resources with industry leading emissions in tensity. Secondly, you know, we will be providing natural gas here. I think as you probably know, to uh supply domestic onshore power generation here in the next in the next year or so, this will get
up and running. That in itself will half the electricity costs to the people of Ghana and comes with significantly lower emissions than the alternative, which is important fuel oil.
So there is a whole value chain expansion potential from low emissions offshore oil to bringing gas into the domestic market and beyond, feeding a much lower carbon future for this country and allowing the country to grow and expand and spread those benefits into society at large using gas as a low emissions source of energy and potentially other
you know, alternative energies as the economy grows. But you know, the whole, the whole ability to get started and grow significantly and take gas and fundamentally transform the economy in a lower carbon way is right in front of our eyes. And it's something that the government of Guhana has been very clear about in their gas development. Liam.
We'll speak to President Ali a little bit later this morning. I think we catch out with him from that conference in about forty five minutes time. Big question that we've been asking in trying to find out the ultimate answer too, is when we can expect a final investment decision to proceed with a sixth offshore or development in Guyana. Liam, how close are we to that decision now?
I will let you confirm this with President Ali, of course, but we're expected to see that in the first quarter of this year.
Is that still the timeline?
Yes?
Okay, Liam, appreciate your rimpo this morning. Thank you, sir, Liam Mannon of Exmmobile