Guyana is on track to pass one million barrels of oil per day as ExxonMobil brings a fifth offshore project online, with three more developments due through 2030. With the Strait of Hormuz closed, buyers in Asia and Europe are turning to crude that avoids the choke point.
The former British colony of one million people already ranks as South America's third-largest oil producer, and government data shows it lifted 888,000 barrels per day at the end of May 2026 — 4% lower than the 924,000 barrels being extracted at the start of the month. Guyana went from first discovery to first oil in four years.
Four floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels operate offshore, with a fifth — the Errea Wittu — expected to start up during 2026 when the Uaru project comes online. Exxon's $12.7 billion Uaru project will add 250,000 barrels per day at capacity, lifting national output over one million barrels daily.
Guyana set to pass Venezuela
That would push the country past Venezuela into second place in South America, behind Brazil. Caracas has expanded production since January 2026, but growth is constrained by the need to rebuild heavily corroded petroleum infrastructure, which will require tens of billions of dollars and at least a decade.
Washington's decision to intervene in Venezuela at the start of 2026 removed the most serious threat to Guyana's boom. President Nicolas Maduro had for years threatened to annex the mineral-rich Essequibo, a region the size of the state of Georgia that comprises around two-thirds of Guyanese territory and whose territorial waters hold the Exxon-operated 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block, with an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil.
Three more Exxon projects through 2030
Beyond Uaru, Exxon is developing three additional projects in the Stabroek Block. The $12.5 billion Whiptail facility, its sixth in Guyana, is expected online in late 2027, lifting oil from 48 production and injection wells through the Jaguar FPSO at a capacity of 250,000 barrels per day. Next comes the $6.8 billion Hammerhead project, 150,000 barrels per day from 18 production and injection wells, slated to start during 2029.
Exxon's eighth project, Longtail, awaits a final investment decision anticipated in late 2026 or early 2027. The $12.5 billion development carries nameplate capacity of 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas and 250,000 barrels of condensate per day from 2030. It marks a strategic decision by Exxon to start lifting natural gas offshore Guyana, as countries in South America such as Colombia suffer shortages.
Together those facilities point to up to 1.9 million barrels per day, including condensate, by 2030.
U.S. imports climb
The largest buyers of Guyanese crude oil are the United States, the Netherlands, Italy, and Panama. According to EIA data, the U.S. received an average of 261,000 barrels per day during April 2026, 51% greater than the same month two years earlier and nearly seven times the 38,000 barrels per day imported in April 2022 — still only a thirtieth of the 7.9 million barrels per day imported for that period.
Unlike many OPEC producers, Guyana does not depend on access to the Strait of Hormuz or the Red Sea to ship oil to key export markets, which prevents war, terrorism, and other geopolitical incidents from affecting its shipments.
Source: Oilprice.com
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