Guyana—at the frontier

ExxonMobil and its partner are racing ahead with their major Liza discovery in Guyana, at Latin America's exploration frontier. Others are struggling to replicate the success

The split between winners and losers in the frontier exploration campaign off Latin America's northeast coast—focused around Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana—is becoming clearer. Indisputably on the winning side is ExxonMobil and its junior partners, Hess and China's Cnooc, in Guyana. The consortium sanctioned the first phase of development of the huge Liza discovery in June. It followed that in October with its fifth major discovery on the Stabroek Block at the Turbot-1 well, which the drillers say has opened up an entirely separate play in the area. "The Stabroek block contains a massive world-class resource that keeps getting bigger and better," John Hess, the head of his namesake compa