SBM Offshore has signed a floating production, storage and offloading vessel deal with ExxonMobil that moves the operator's next Guyana development into front-end engineering and design, according to a report by Offshore Energy.

The contract lands as ExxonMobil, operator of the Stabroek block for a consortium that includes Hess and CNOOC subsidiary Nexen, continues to stack producing units and construction programs along the Guyana margin. FEED marks the phase in which the project's hull, topsides, mooring concept and offtake arrangement are locked down ahead of any final investment decision, and an FPSO award at this stage signals that ExxonMobil intends to keep the basin's development cadence — one new floater roughly every 12–18 months — on schedule.

SBM Offshore is already a central contractor in the basin. The company delivered the Liza Destiny and Liza Unity FPSOs for the Liza Phase 1 and Phase 2 developments, followed by the Prosperity vessel for the Payara project. Its Fast4Ward hull design, built around a standardized new-build tanker hull with replicable process modules, underpinned those Guyana awards and has become the reference concept for the block's series-build approach.

The new award keeps that pipeline running. For SBM Offshore, FEED contracts on Stabroek have historically converted into engineering, procurement, construction and installation awards once ExxonMobil and its partners sanction the development — a pattern the market will watch for again here.

For ExxonMobil, the agreement supports the operator's stated program of expanding gross production capacity on the Stabroek block toward more than 1.3 million bpd by 2027, a target that depends on each successive floater reaching FID and first oil on schedule.

The financial terms of the award, the vessel's intended production capacity and the specific development the FPSO will serve were not detailed in the initial report.

The watch items: conversion of the FEED contract into a full EPCIC award, the timing of the subsequent final investment decision, and the startup window the operator attaches to this next unit.