Oil and gas firms TotalEnergies and Apache Corporation have discovered more oil off the coast of Suriname.
The duo has hit oil at the Sapakara South-1 offshore well at Block 58, where they’ve previously made the Maka Central, Sapakara West, Kwaskwasi, and Keskesi oil discoveries.
The Saparak Sapakara South-1 discovery was made four kilometers southeast of the Sapakara West-1 discovery.
Drilled in a water depth of about 850 meters, Sapakara South encountered 30 meters net pay of oil, in a good quality Campano-Maastrichtian reservoir.
“We are pleased by this new successful well at Sapakara South-1, very similar to the one announced in Keskesi earlier this year. These repeated positive results confirm our strategy which targets large resource volumes at low development costs,” said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at TotalEnergies.
“As the operator of the prolific Block 58, this encourages us to continue our effort, jointly with our partner, to add to the resource base while conducting the appraisal operations designed to prove a commercial oil development.”
Drilling operations will continue with the Maersk Valiant drillship. TotalEnergies is the operator, holding a 50% working interest, and Apache holding a 50% working interest.
Upon completion of the Sapakara South-1 well, the drillship will move approximately 45 kilometers to the north, to drill Bonboni prospect, before returning later in the year to flow test Sapakara South-1.
Apache said the discovery marked another important step toward a commercial oil development in the southeast portion of Block 58.
Apache’s President and CEO John J. Christmann IV said: “We are very encouraged by the initial appraisal, having confirmed 30 meters of single, blocky sand that is full to base with black oil. These are the characteristics necessary to accelerate development in this area of Block 58, which has high prospect density. We are excited to explore the northern portion of the block at Bonboni and look forward to continuing our appraisal program, including a flow test of Sapakara South-1 before year-end.”
The Guyana/Suriname region has in the past few years been a hotspot of successful offshore oil exploration, and the region which currently has only one production unit – Exxon’s Liza Destiny in Guyana – will in the next few years have several new FPSO units deployed to develop the discovered resources.
TotalEnergies last month selected Malaysian FPSO specialist Yinson to conduct preliminary Front-End Engineering Design (“pre-FEED”) for an FPSO to be installed at Block 58 in Suriname.
The news of the new Suriname discovery comes just a day after Exxon said Thursday it had made another discovery in its Stabroek block in nearby Guyana, adding to the US oil majors 9 billion barrels of oil equivalent found in Guyana in recent years.
“ExxonMobil envisions at least six projects online by 2027 and sees potential for up to 10 projects to develop its current recoverable resource base,” ExxonMobil was quoted last week as saying.
