High hopes exist in Guyana for oil production outside of the Stabroek Block.
This is evidenced by recent statements from the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat who said that the Corentyne Block could move to production in the next eight years.
“We have already made a discovery in the Corentyne Block… They did an appraisal well, and there are plans to do more appraisal wells so it is highly likely that the Corentyne Block can be in production by 2030,” Bharrat said on October 13. He was at the time, addressing members of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) during an information session on the Gas-to-Energy project. The session was organised by the Chamber’s Petroleum Committee.
The Corentyne Block is currently operated by CGX Energy. Frontera currently holds a 72.7% participating interest.
CGX made two successful discoveries in the block; Kawa-1 and Wei-1.
The Kawa-1 well was drilled in water depths of approximately 355 meters (1,174 ft) to a total depth of 21,578 feet (6,577 meters) in the northern portion of the Corentyne block. The well encountered light oil in the Santonian and Coniacian and gas condensate in the Maastrichtian and Campanian plays. CGX later plugged and abandoned Kawa, noting that it was intended to be kept active following the completion of the successful drilling campaign.
The Wei-1 well encountered 210 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing sands in the Santonian horizon. CGX had updated its previously announced discovery in the Maastrichtian and the Campanian intervals to 77 feet of net pay. Fluid samples were retrieved from the Campanian and Maastrichtian indicating the presence of light crude in the Campanian and sweet medium crude oil in the Maastrichtian.
Drilling at Wei-1 was completed in July and CGX is expected to release the results of the Santonian rock and fluid properties soon. Those are being analyzed by “an independent third-party lab” to define the net pay and basis for the evaluation of that interval. CGX said that a comprehensive logging campaign in the Maastrichtian interval indicated the presence of medium-sweet crude oil of 24.9 API. The downhole fluid analysis confirmed light crude oil in the Campanian interval.
CGX has said that it is uncertain whether the find at Wei-1 is enough to underpin commercial development in that part of the Corentyne block. The ongoing analysis is expected to present some valuable insight on the way forward.
