Yellowtail will develop a much larger resource base than any of the previous developments at the ExxonMobil-operated Stabroek Block offshore Guyana while the Pinktail and Whiptail discoveries which both have deeper zones with good quality oil, could form the basis for the 6th development.
It was announced this week that the Pinktail well encountered 220 feet (67 meters) of net pay in high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir.
CEO of Hess Corporation, a 30% stakeholder in the Stabroek Block, said Pinktail is a high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir. “We think it has the potential to be coupled with Whiptail, a discovery announced earlier this year…to be the sixth development,” he said in a recent webcast.
“It will have good economics,” Hess said, pointing out that the Pinktail discovery “is very, very important in terms of going up the value queue in terms of what our next set of developments are.”
Pinktail is located approximately 21.7 miles (35 kilometers) southeast of the Liza Phase 1 development, which began production in December 2019, and 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) southeast of Yellowtail-1. The well site is nearly four miles southeast of the Yellowtail field – an earlier discovery that is moving toward a final investment decision.
Exxon plans to submit Yellowtail FDP by October, already has line of sight on projects 6 & 7
Whiptail is located roughly three miles west of Yellowtail and about four miles southeast of the partners’ Uaru discovery, also on Stabroek and announced in January 2020.
“Whiptail and Pinktail both had deeper zones with good quality hydrocarbons in those zones,” Hess Chief Operating Officer Greg Hill said.
In the fourth quarter of this year, the Stabroek Block co-venturers will drill their first dedicated test of the deep potential at the Fangtooth prospect, located 9 miles northwest of Liza-1.
“That will be a real key piece of data,” Hill said. “Fangtooth, if it’s big enough, could potentially be a stand-alone hub on its own.”
Hill said Yellowtail, the 4th development planned at Stabroek Block, will develop a much larger resource base than any of the previous developments. “So, we’re pretty excited about the overall economics of Yellowtail and also the size of the reservoir that it’s going to develop.”
Yellowtail is targeting 250,000 barrels of oil per day, the largest volumes yet for a single development offshore the South American country.
OilNOW understands that the Longtail-3 appraisal well confirms that there is a large aerial and vertical extent to the Longtail-1 discovery, making it a very large reservoir system and prime candidate in the queue for development. The second appraisal well in the area – Mako-2 – is also very significant since it shows the Uaru/Mako complex is between Yellowtail and Liza, which could potentially be the 5th development on the block.
