With the Maersk Discoverer drill ship now expected to arrive in Guyana on Sunday, Frontera Energy on Wednesday said that there has been a delay in the spudding of the Kawa-1 well on the Corentyne Block, offshore Guyana, which has now been pushed back to the end of this month.
Frontera holds a direct working interest of 33.3% in both the offshore Corentyne and Demerara blocks, and together with CGX Energy shares ownership of 73.8%, resulting in a total consolidated working interest of 82.6% in the blocks. The partners are known as the joint venture.
CGX had announced in July that the Kawa-1 well would be spudded within the August 1 to 15 time period due to a delay in the arrival of the drill ship.
Providing an update on operations in Guyana during the announcement of the Frontera’s second quarter 2021 results, the company said on Wednesday that the Discoverer, a sixth-generation semi-submersible drilling rig, is currently en route from Trinidad and is expected at the Kawa-1 location on August 15, 2021.
“The Company is thrilled that drilling will begin shortly on the potentially transformational Kawa-1 well offshore Guyana,” Orlando Cabrales, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Frontera, commented.
Gabriel de Alba, Chair-man of the Board of Directors, said that he believes that the Kawa-1 well is one of the most exciting exploration wells in the world with a potential discovery serving as a key value creation catalyst.
According to Frontera, the joint venture expects that the Kawa-1 well will reach total depth in approximately 85 days. As part of its contract with Maersk, the company said, the joint venture also holds an option to drill an additional well.
A highly-qualified and experienced team for the drilling campaign, with extensive deep water drilling expertise from operations around the globe, including the Guyana Basin, is already assembled.
The Kawa-1 well is located in the northeast quadrant of the Corentyne block, approximately 200 kilometers offshore from Georgetown. The water depth is approximately 355 meters (1174 ft) and the expected total depth of the Kawa-1 well is 6,685 meters (21,932 ft). The primary target of the Kawa-1 well is a light oil, large Santonian slope fan complex with an overlying Campanian fan in a combination structural and stratigraphic trap. Trapping of hydrocarbons within Campanian to Santonian aged sandstone reservoirs is expected to be provided by a pinchout of the reservoir section updip.
The Kawa-1 well will also penetrate secondary objectives in a shallower Campanian sand and a deeper Santonian sand, which the joint venture believes has additional hydrocarbon potential. The stacked primary and secondary Kawa-1 targets are considered analogous to the discoveries immediately adjacent to the Corentyne block in Block 58 in Suriname.
CGX Resources Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of CGX and operator of the Corentyne block, has secured all necessary contracts for the drilling of Kawa-1 and is now commencing operational activities to meet the targeted spud window. The current cost estimated to drill and evaluate Kawa-1 is between US$80-$85 million, which CGX expects to finance from one or more options that are currently being considered by the company.
