In just seven years, Guyana has become one of the fastest-growing oil exporters and global economies and an oil-producing powerhouse with nearly 1 million barrels per day of production capacity. And the war in Iran is only turning up the heat even more.
Since ExxonMobil launched production from the offshore Stabroek block in 2019, Guyana’s economy has quadrupled. Oil revenues and royalties have boosted income for the state coffers and gross domestic product (GDP) linked with oil-related activities.
Now Guyana, which was one of the poorest South American countries and has fewer than 1 million citizens, is poised to materially increase its oil revenues and its position on the global oil map as the war in Iran has hiked international oil prices and has buyers scrambling for crude from outside the Middle East region.
Guyana, of course, is not out of the woods yet as regards the so-called resource curse, typical of many new resource hotspots which have tended to waste through the decades the opportunities their natural resources – oil, gas, metals, or minerals – have offered to their economies.
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The country looks to boost local content contracting in oil-related activities, including catering, hospitality, and other services. It will also soon start to receive a larger share of royalties from the Exxon-led consortium, which is currently pumping all of the country’s oil.
After starting up its fourth project known as Yellowtail last year, the Exxon-led consortium operating Guyana’s Stabroek block hit 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production.
Production capacity from eight developments is expected to reach 1.7 million bpd by 2030. Exxon has estimated that the gross recoverable resource for the Stabroek Block is nearly 11 billion oil equivalent barrels.
In the first half of 2026, “We delivered record production, continued strong reliability, and have Uaru, Whiptail, and Hammerhead projects under construction, with Uaru expecting first oil late this year,” Exxon’s CEO Darren Woods said on the Q1 earnings call, referring to the Guyana operations.
The Stabroek co-venturers have so far committed more than $60 billion to develop seven government-sanctioned projects on Guyana’s offshore Stabroek block. Apart from the four already operational projects, three others – Uaru, Whiptail, and Hammerhead – are set to start up by 2029. An eighth project, Longtail, is currently undergoing regulatory reviews.
Just last week, Exxon applied for environmental consent to develop the Haimara gas condensate discovery in Stabroek as Guyana, and the oil giants look to establish a gas industry, too.
Until then, the government is set to reap huge benefits from the current turmoil in international energy markets—and some of the benefits could be even more important than money.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East made buyers perceive non-Middle Eastern crude as a more reliable source of energy. Countries with open access to the Atlantic, such as Guyana, are not forced to scramble for solutions if a chokepoint is closed, blockaded, or fired missiles at.
In the middle of April, Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said that the crisis at the Strait of Hormuz could redraw the global energy map as the world’s most critical oil chokepoint is no longer seen as a reliable route for oil and gas supply.
Guyana, Brazil, the U.S., and the other American producers, plus Norway in Europe, are increasingly perceived as the reliable energy suppliers in a world that sees too much risk in the Middle East.
The government of Guyana is estimated to receive $4.3 billion from its oil resources this year, up by 67% from 2025, according to Reuters calculations.
Moreover, the Exxon-led consortium will soon have recouped its investment in the Stabroek block, which means Guyana’s share of the oil profits will jump from 12.5% to 50%.
If the South American nation manages to avoid the resource curse, it has very bright prospects ahead.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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