An Oil Discovery In Guyana May Be Worth 12 Times More Than Its Economy

Off the coast of Guyana, in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, may lie oil and natural gas riches worth $40 billion dollars, or roughly 12 times more valuable than the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), Bloomberg reports.

The discovery made by Exxon Mobil is likely to hold over 700 million barrels of oil, and crude production might start by the end of 2020, Raphael Trotman, Guyana’s Minister of Governance, told Bloomberg on Monday.

The nation of Guyana does not produce oil, its GDP was at $3.23 billion in 2014, which is ranked between Burundi and Swaziland, according to the World Bank.

“A find of this magnitude for a country like ours, which sits on the lower end of the scale of countries in this hemisphere, this could be transformational,” Trotman said. “From my sense, from speaking to experts outside of Exxon, it has to be something in excess of 700 million barrels.”

Exxon began drilling at the discovery site in March, at a well named Liza-1, which is 120 miles offshore and 5,710 feet beneath the sea surface.

Exxon first announced its discovery in a statement on May 20 in a find they described as “significant”.