The Last Spark: Deepwater Champion Drillship – A Tribute to a Legend

From Golden Dawn to Final Sunset

Written by: Marcel Chin-A-Lien, Petroleum & Energy Advisor, 9th June, 2025.

A salute to the iron giant that changed everything

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May 2015 –

She arrived like a steel prophet in the Guyana-Suriname Basin, her derrick piercing the Caribbean sky with industrial poetry.

While others saw only endless blue, she saw beneath, to where billions of barrels of black gold lay sleeping in the Liza-1 reservoir.

The Discovery That Rewrote Maps

With the precision of a surgeon and the determination of a pioneer, she drove through 17,000 feet of ocean and earth.

What emerged wasn’t just oil, it was destiny.

The Liza-1 discovery did not just put Guyana on the energy map; it became the map.

The greatest discovery of the last decades, they said.

And they were right.

From Hero to… Here

2015: Golden discovery, golden future
2016: Already rolling to the next frontier
2025: Destination… the graveyard

Ten years.

From making billionaires to making scrap.

The Bitter Sweet Symphony of Steel

She sparked the Guyana-Suriname Golden Lane (GSGL) revolution.

A discovery so massive it shifted geopolitics, created nations’ fortunes, and launched a thousand careers.

ExxonMobil’s crown jewel. Guyana’s transformation from forgotten corner to oil superpower.

All because one drillship refused to give up on a hunch.

¿Nadie? ¿Nada?

Nobody? Nothing?

How does a ship that discovered and was the first one to unveil anno 2025 some 13+ billion barrels end up heading for the scrapyard?

How does the iron lady who birthed a nation’s wealth become tomorrow’s recycled rebar?

Bueno. Que más se puede hacer.
Well. What more can be done.

The Pitch: Save the Ship That Saved Guyana

This is not just a drillship.

It is a monument.

The Mayflower of the modern energy age.

The Enterprise of offshore exploration.

Consider:

• Every museum needs its centerpiece
• Every nation needs its symbols
• Every industry needs its legends preserved

Transform her into:

• The Liza-1 Discovery Museum – floating testament to human ingenuity
• Offshore Training Center – teach the next generation where greatness began
• Maritime Heritage Site – where pilgrims of petroleum can pay respects

Por lo menos dejó un buen legado
At least she left a good legacy

But legacies deserve better than the cutting torch.

The Last Spark Shouldn’t Be Her Final One

She gave Guyana its future.
She gave ExxonMobil its biggest prize.
She gave the world a reminder that there are still giants beneath the waves.

Nos toca a todos. Si quiere y si no quiere…
It touches us all. Whether we want it or not…

The question isn’t whether she deserves preservation.
The question is whether we deserve to be the generation that scrapped our greatest discovery.

Save the ship. Save the story. Save the spark.

Before the last light goes out.

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“In the end, we will remember not the discoveries we made, but the discoverers we forgot.”

About myself ?

Kind regards.

Marcel Chin-A-Lien

Petroleum and Energy Advisor

48 Years of Global, in-depth expertise, knowhow and insights.

That have generated transformative, multi billion giant fields discoveries, iconic first capitalistic new ventures in the USSR, bid rounds, added value and long term cash flow generating offshore exploration and production activities on Dutch North Sea, M&A, PSC designs, Contract negotiations.

Combined with a cross & trans discipline background of 4 petroleum post grad degrees, that fuse technical, business, commercial and management disciplines, accompanied by fluency in 7 languages in a variety of geographical, socio-cultural and business landscapes. 

“ Exploration & Production integrated with Business & Commercial Development and Critical Insights “

Drs – Petroleum Geology
Engineering Geologist – Petroleum Geology

Executive MBA International Business – Petroleum – M&A
MSc International Management – Petroleum

Energy Negotiator Association of International Negotiators (AIEN)

Certified Petroleum Geologist # 5201 – American Association Petroleum Geologists – Gold standard Certification
Chartered European Geologist # 92    – European Federation of Geologists – Gold standard Certification

Cambridge Award  “ 2000 Outstanding Scientists of the 20th Century ”, UK – Gold standard Award
Paris Awards  “ Innovative New Business Projects “, GDF-Suez, France – Two Gold standard Awards, Paris, 2003.

Public Profile: nl.linkedin.com/pub/marcel-chin-a-lien/9/a73/547/

For Advisory Services contact:

Email: marcelchinalien@gmail.com