Boom or blowout? Exxon’s Guyana gamble

A huge new Exxon Mobil project in Guyana faces charges of a disregard for safety from experts who claim the company has failed to adequately prepare for possible disaster

Exxon has been extracting oil from Liza 1, an ultra-deepwater drilling operation, since 2019 – part of an expansive project spanning more than 2.4m hectares off the coast of Guyana

By 2025, the company expects to produce 800,000 barrels of oil a day, making Guyana Exxon’s largest single source of fossil fuel production

But experts claim that Exxon in Guyana appears to be taking advantage of an unprepared government in one of the lowest-income nations in South America, allowing the company to skirt necessary oversight. Worse, they also believe the company’s safety plans are inadequate and dangerous.

A top engineer who studies oil industry disasters, as well as a former government regulator, have