First crude from Guyana's fourth platform to be exported in August-September

The first crude cargo from Guyana's fourth oil production facility, which arrived in the country in April and is being installed, is set to be exported between late August and early September, the government told Reuters on Tuesday.

A consortium by US companies Exxon Mobil and Hess and China's CNOOC controls all crude and gas output in Guyana. Each party individually exports its share of production, and the government also is entitled to a share as profit oil.

The floating facility, built by SBM Offshore and called One Guyana, is expected to begin producing in the coming months, expanding the consortium's output capacity to more than 900,000 barrels per day, the companies have said.

The first load of Guyana's new crude grade, called "Golden Arrowhead," will be of one million barrels, according to three trading sources with knowledge of the transaction. Because it will be the first cargo from that platform, it is expected to be offered soon by the three partners through a tender, one of the sources said.

One Guyana will produce crude and associated gas at the Exxon group's Yellowtail and Redtail offshore fields.

Exxon, which leads the consortium, did not reply to a request for comment. Guyana's government did not provide further details.

Since it started exporting crude in early 2020, the burgeoning oil nation has emerged as the fifth largest Latin American crude exporter after Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia.

Guyana's oil exports rose 54 per cent last year to some 582,000 bpd, fueled by European refiners' demand for easy-to-process sweet crudes, according to shipping data. Output capacity in the country is expected to reach 1.7 million bpd by 2030.

(Reporting by Kemol King in Georgetown, Robert Harvey in London and Arathy Somasekhar and Marianna Parraga in Houston; editing by Edward Tobin and Nia Williams)