Canadian oil exploration company, CGX Energy Inc. has contracted a rig to drill its Eagle-1 well offshore Guy-ana, the company announced yesterday.
In a statement, CGX said it is in discussions with government officials regarding timing for drilling. An announcement on mobilization and drill timing will be made later, it said. CGX and its partners were expected to drill two offshore wells this year but this has not materialized. Government officials have now indicated that drilling would commence next year.
CGX said it awarded the contract to a subsidiary of Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. for the Ocean Saratoga semi-submersible drilling rig to drill the Eagle-1 well on the company’s 100% owned and operated Corentyne Petro-leum Prospecting License (PPL), offshore Guyana. The Ocean Saratoga is currently performing a work-over in the Gulf of Mexico and will soon be available to drill the company’s Eagle-1 well, the statement said.
CGX said that Diamond is a leading drilling contractor that owns and operates one of the largest fleets of offshore drilling units in the world and has operation bases in Houston, Perth, Australia, Macae, Brazil and Aberdeen, Scotland. Diamond has over 40 years global drilling experience and approximately 5,000 highly skilled employees worldwide.
“The company (CGX) will be drilling two highly prospective wells offshore Guyana — the Eagle-1 well that will appraise the Eocene and Maastrichtian geologic formations to an anticipated total depth of 4,300 metres and the Jaguar-1 well which will appraise the Turonian geologic formation to an anticipated depth of 6,500 metres. Our 100% Eagle-1 well is anticipated to take approximately 60 days to drill. The Jaguar-1 well, located on the Georgetown PPL, in which CGX has a 25% interest with partners Repsol Exploracion S.A (operator), YPF Guyana Limited and Tullow Guyana BV, will be drilled by the Atwood Beacon jackup rig as soon as it completes drilling for Inpex Corporation offshore Suri-name. This drilling will mark the fruition of years of evaluation, preparation and cooperation between CGX and the Guyana Government and the onset of evaluating the petroleum potential of this highly prospective basin,” Steve Hermeston, President and CEO of CGX was quoted as saying in the statement.
CGX Energy is a Canadian-based oil and gas exploration company focused on the exploration of oil in the Guyana-Suriname Basin, an area that is ranked second in the world for oil and gas prospectivity by the United States Geological Service.
