Guyana’s Oil Exports Skyrocket—And Europe’s Refiners Love It

Five years after an Exxon-led consortium produced the first oil offshore Guyana, the country is pumping more than 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and has become South America’s fifth-largest oil exporter.

Guyana and ExxonMobil expect oil production to jump to 1.3 million bpd by 2030, which would double the current output volumes.

With higher production came a surge in Guyana’s crude oil exports in recent years. More than half of these are going to Europe, where refiners have been increasingly appreciating Guyana’s crude grades—Liza, Unity Gold, and Payara Gold. These crudes are sweeter and lighter compared to the crude of some other South American exporters, such as Mexico or Colombia.

Since the end of 2019, when Guyana exported its first crude oil cargo, the country has become the fifth biggest exporter in Latin America, after Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia.

Guyana’s plans for developing its burgeoning petroleum industry don’t stop with increasing its share of the global oil market.

The country and ExxonMobil are considering gas-to-shore projects to feed the fertilizer and aluminum industry and power and cool data centers.

While drawing up these plans for utilizing natural gas, Guyana is boosting its crude oil production and shipments.

Last year, Guyana’s exports jumped by 54% from a year earlier amid strong demand from Europe.

Crude oil exports averaged about 582,000 bpd in 2024, as ExxonMobil and its partners Hess Corp and CNOOC of China continued to boost production from the offshore Stabroek Block, where more than 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels have been discovered to date.

The crudes from Guyana have found a favorable market in Europe due to the proximity, quality, and easy access to sellers, an anonymous trader of Latin American crude told Reuters in January.

“Europe is the ideal market for Guyana’s crudes,” the trader noted.

The lighter and sweeter crude from Guyana has boosted its market share in Europe, and most of Guyana’s exports went to Europe last year. A total of 66% of Guyana’s oil was shipped to Europe in 2024, up from 62% of Guyana’s oil that headed to Europe in 2023.

In January 2025, Europe’s share of Guyana’s exports was even higher, at 75%, as fifteen out of twenty cargoes were taken by Europe, according to vessel-tracking services cited by Guyanese outlet OilNOW.

Guyana’s crude is set to further boost its market share in Europe and globally in the coming years as output in the country is expected to jump to over 1 million bpd before the end of the decade.

Guyana already produces more than 660,000 bpd of crude from the Exxon-operated block. Production capacity in Guyana is expected to surpass 1.7 million barrels per day, with gross production growing to 1.3 million barrels per day by 2030, Exxon says.

Guyana is now the third largest per-capita oil producer in the world, according to the U.S. supermajor.

Surging oil production and exports helped Guyana’s economy grow by 43.6% last year, marking the fifth straight year of double-digit GDP growth, which began just as Guyana became an oil producer.

The oil and gas sector development is continuing, with Exxon considering additional projects to tap both the crude and natural gas riches offshore Guyana.

Exxon and partners expect to produce up to 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas and 290,000 barrels per day of condensate at the Longtail project, the consortium’s eighth project offshore Guyana, which will also be the biggest natural gas development in the prolific Stabroek Block to date.

Some of the more than a dozen discoveries in the Stabroek Block have good natural gas resources, and Exxon has decided it would develop these for gas-to-power onshore and potentially for LNG exports in the future.

Last month, Alistair Routledge, president and general manager at ExxonMobil Guyana, said that the supermajor plans to boost gas production in Guyana and could consider gas exports at a later stage.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com