The rig contracted to drill offshore for petroleum on behalf of Spanish company Repsol YPF is in place and ready to initiate works and all should be in place for the commencement of drilling expected by the beginning of February 2012.
According to information that this newspaper had garnered, the rig has been positioned on location and crews to man it arrived on January 20, 2012. Further, all the necessary materials for the commencement of the operations have arrived at the drill site.
A diving vessel – MSV Global Orion – arrived at the location on January 22 and a remote submarine on January 23 to prepare for the commencement of the operations.
During the last quarter of 2011, then president Bharrat Jagdeo granted an extension to the deadline for drilling the Jaguar-1 well offshore Guyana to Repsol and the main partners in the joint venture drilling project.
According to CGX Energy Inc, the parties to the Georgetown Petroleum Prospecting Licence are Repsol Exploracion SA (15%), being the operator, along with YPF Guyana Limited (30%), Tullow Guyana BV (30%) and CGX Resources Inc (25%).
A delegation comprising officials of Repsol and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission made the request for the extension of the licence on the grounds that the Atwood Beacon jack-up rig had been drilling for another operator offshore Suriname, resulting in it being significantly delayed.
Repsol is said to have already invested US$40M and has committed more than $100M for the project which is estimated to cost over $150M. The company is reportedly very optimistic of its chances of finding oil and noted that with the well being in the location of a frontier basin, anything could happen, pointing to the encouraging news of a recent discovery made in the French Guiana basin.
Guyana is considered the second most attractive under-explored basin in the world with a potential of 15.2 billion barrels of oil. A discovery here is expected to produce about 50 million barrels per year. Government is expected to get a cash flow of 53 per cent, and the oil company 43 per cent.
CGX has been keen on drilling in this offshore area since 2000 but was thwarted by Surinamese gunboats in June of that year.
This led to protracted negotiations between Guyana and Suriname which yielded nothing. Guyana gained the upper hand in the matter following a ruling by the Law of the Sea tribunal in 2007.
