Canadian oil explorer CGX Energy Inc yesterday announced that the Government of Guyana has granted it a deferral for drilling of the Eagle-1 well offshore Guyana on the Company’s Corentyne Petroleum Prospecting Licence (the “Corentyne PPL”).
A statement from CGX said that the deferral provides for the remaining minimum work programme of the drilling of two exploration wells to be completed by June 24, 2013. CGX has a 100% working interest in the Corentyne PPL.
Stephen Hermeston, President and CEO of CGX stated in the release, “We are very pleased to have received this deferral.
As announced in our press release of November 29th, CGX Resources has contracted the Ocean Saratoga semi-submersible rig to drill the Eagle-1 well.
The Ocean Saratoga is finalizing a work-over in the Gulf of Mexico and will be available early January for mobilization to the Guyana Suriname basin.
We are looking forward to announcing the commencement of drilling for this well.”
CGX had initially expected to drill these two wells this year.
CGX has had the Eagle-1 well in its sights since 2000. In that year its rig was chased off the site by Suriname patrol boats.
A ruling by the Hamburg, Germany-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea subsequently ruled that the location was within Guyana’s waters.
Since then there has been deepening interest in the area offshore the Guianas. The Guyana/Suriname Basin is now ranked second in the world for oil and gas prospectivity by the United States Geological Service.
Oil explorer Tullow recently made a major find off of French Guiana.
“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 Suriname.
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,” Hermeston was quoted as saying in a statement on November 29.
