By Kemol King and Sheila Dang

GEORGETOWN/HOUSTON, March 20 (Reuters) -

Crude output in Guyana rose to 648,000 barrels per day (bpd)

in February from 620,000 bpd the previous month, the natural

resources ministry said on Thursday.

Oil production in the South American country, which is

controlled by a consortium led by Exxon Mobil ( XOM ), has been

growing consistently since 2019, when the group inaugurated

output, and is expected to surpass 900,000 bpd this year.

In 2024, the consortium completed upgrades that have allowed

output capacity expansions at existing facilities. A fourth

production vessel departed from Singapore last month and is

expected to increase capacity even more once installed later

this year.

Guyana's oil production in February last year averaged

626,000 bpd.

The Guyana government this month reported $225 million

in revenue from sale of its share of oil output, marking its

first earnings from crude produced and exported this year.

The country expects to receive some $2.5 billion from

oil sales and royalties in 2025, compared with $2.57 billion in

2024. The reduction is due to lower expected prices, despite the

forecast for a production increase.

Guyana is one of three key areas where Exxon is

investing heavily, along with the Permian Basin in the U.S. and

the liquefied natural gas sector, said Dan Ammann, president of

Exxon upstream, during the CERAWeek conference in Houston last

week.

The Exxon-led consortium has three operational

production facilities and expects to deploy eight, which would

lead to doubling current production, Ammann said.

"We see significant growth there," he said.