Director, Department of Energy, Dr. Mark Bynoe, yesterday, announced that UK-based Tullow Oil plc’s (Tullow) Joe-1 exploration well has discovered a new Upper Tertiary oil play in the Guyana basin.
This is the second find of oil in two different wells operated by Tullow, in less than six weeks, a statement from the Ministry of the Presidency said around 2 am yesterday.
“The Co-operative Republic of Guyana continues to be encouraged by the prolific rate of discovery in our country. Every Guyanese can be assured that the Government will continue to work conscientiously to pursue the most effective and efficient marketing strategies of Guyana’s crude entitlement to transform our economy and to implement sustainable development programmes from which all Guyanese can benefit,” Bynoe said. Later yesterday morning ExxonMobil annou-nced its 14th oil find in the Stabroek Block.
The Joe-1 exploration well was drilled by the Stena Forth drillship to a total depth of 2,175 metres in water of 780 metres. The evaluation of logging and sampling data affirmed that Joe-1 has encountered 14 metres of net oil pay in high-quality oil bearing sandstone reservoirs of Upper Tertiary age, the statement added.
Bynoe stated that the Joe-1 well is the first oil discovery to be made in the Upper Tertiary play type, which further de-risks the western area of the Orinduik block, where a significant number of Tertiary and Cretaceous age prospects have been pinpointed.
“Guyana’s future is bright but more importantly, the time is ripe for all Guyanese to focus on how they want to see their oil revenues spent and invested”, Bynoe posited.
The statement added that the Repsol-operated Carapa-1 well on the Kanuku licence (Tullow 37.5 per cent) is scheduled to commence drilling in late September with the Rowan EXL II jack-up rig and will test the Cretaceous oil play with a result due in the fourth quarter of this year.
Bynoe added that Tullow and its partners will now evaluate data from the Joe-1 discovery alongside data from the Jethro-1 discovery announced in August 2019 and await the results of the Carapa well to determine the appropriate follow-on exploration and appraisal programme.
The well was drilled on the Orinduik licence by Tullow’s wholly owned subsidiary Tullow Guyana B.V. Tullow Guyana B.V. is the operator of the Orinduik block with a 60 per cent share. Total E&P Guyana B.V. holds 25 per cent with the remaining 15 per cent being held by Eco (Atlantic) Guyana Incorporated.
Angus McCoss, Tullow Exploration Director, said yesterday after the find: “I am very pleased that we have made back-to-back discoveries in Guyana and successfully opened a new, shallower play in the Upper Tertiary age of the Guyana basin with our second well. The Joe-1 discovery and its surrounding prospects represent another area of significant potential in the Orinduik Block and we are greatly looking forward to the next phase of the programme as we continue to unlock the multi-billion barrel potential of this acreage.”
Three more wells
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Tullow Oil plans to drill three or more oil exploration wells in Guyana’s waters next year. It said that Chief Executive Officer Paul McDade made the disclosure yesterday after the firm’s second offshore oil discovery here.
Following the Jethro-1 discovery last month, London-listed Tullow announced it had also hit oil at the Joe-1 well in the Orinduik block.
Tullow shares were trading more than 8% higher at 16:30 GMT (12:30 p.m. EDT), also supported by a sharp rise in crude oil prices following a weekend attack on Saudi Arabia’s production facilities. Although the Joe-1 discovery was smaller than initially estimated, it offers Tullow and its partners a better understanding of the block to decide on further exploration drilling and development of production, McDade told Reuters.
“It is a balance between how much new exploration we do next year to build gross volume on the blocks versus how much appraisal we do to start to move ahead with the development of the block,” he said.
“We’d be drilling around three wells or more next year. I’d be surprised if we didn’t drill that many,” he said, referring both to the Orinduik and the Kanuku blocks.
“Another discovery in Guyana, although (it) has come in smaller than expected and is unlikely to be developed as a standalone,” BMO Capital Markets said in a note.
