Groundstar plans to begin drilling for oil in the Rupununi in mid-October in the first such major operation here in ten years.
Most of the drilling rig has arrived on the Apoteri K2 drilling location while the remainder is in the process of clearing customs in Manaus, Brazil prior to being mobilized to the location, the company said in a statement yesterday. It said that pre-drill operations continue at the location.
The company expects to begin drilling the Apoteri K2 well in mid October and anticipates that the well will take 50 days to drill, the statement said.
Previously, the company had anticipated drilling beginning in August. “Groundstar is extremely pleased and excited to have reached this stage”, the company said.
It pointed out that the company is currently drilling a high-potential well drilling in the Kurdish part of Iraq while, apart from the exploratory well that will be drilled on its Takutu PPL here, another will be drilled on the WKO block in Upper Egypt this year, at no cost to the Company. “Regardless of this year’s drilling results, additional exploration wells will be drilled in 2011 in Guyana and Egypt at no cost to Groundstar”, said the statement. Groundstar has a 10% working interest in the Takutu Petroleum Prospecting Licence (PPL), which contains the Karanambo discovery drilled by Home Oil in 1982 while Canacol Energy Ltd holds the remaining 90% interest in the PPL.
However, in November 2009, Canacol completed a farm-out agreement with Sagres Energy Inc whereby Sagres acquired a 25% interest in the exploration agreement by agreeing to fund 30% (US$1.25 million) of costs of drilling the K-2 exploration well; bringing Canacol’s net working interest to 65%.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Corporation and Sagres will carry Groundstar’s 10% remaining working interest until first commercial oil production.
The joint venture plans to drill the Apoteri K-2 well to a total measured depth of approximately 11,000 feet. Gaffney Cline and Associates attributed gross mean recoverable prospective resources of 128 million barrels of oil to the discovery in a December 2009 report compiled for Canacol.
Groundstar to date has completed the construction of the drilling pad, access roads, and staging areas in preparation for drilling, and has purchased and mobilized wellheads sufficient for 3 wells which are in the country.
If successful the well will be put on a long-term production test to establish the deliverability and performance of the formations.
The wet weather conditions in the Rupununi reportedly contributed to the drill date being pushed back. Under the terms of a new (May 22, 2009) three-year Petroleum Agreement with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, the operator was obliged to drill one exploration well by May 22, 2010, and a second well by May 22, 2011, according to information on the company’s website. Groundstar is a Canadian oil exploration company.
The last time that a well was supposed to be drilled here, in June 2000, Canadian oil exploration company, CGX Energy’s rig was chased out of Guyana’s waters by Suriname gunboats as it was about to embark on drilling a well in the most promising area.
This led to a diplomatic crisis between Guyana and Suriname and years of futile talks. The deadlock was broken when Guyana took its case to the International Law of the Sea tribunal and secured a ruling largely in its favour in 2007. Since then expectations have been high over CGX resuming its oil search.
The company has said that it expects to commence drilling here next year after earlier saying that drilling could begin here in the latter part of this year. CGX has pushed back the expected drilling start a number of times.
The company says that the Jaguar well is planned to be drilled in the first half of 2011 while the Eagle well will be drilled after.
