ExxonMobil is assessing whether its massive Ranger discovery offshore Guyana can be economically developed, President Alistair Routledge confirmed during a press briefing on October 13.
“The Stena Carron rig is currently on that reservoir,” Routledge said. “This is actually one of the largest discoveries that we’ve made on the block, as far as what we call oil originally in place is concerned.”
However, he explained that the Ranger field presents new challenges. “It’s a very different reservoir to those that we have developed so far,” he said. “It’s what we say [is] carbonate rock reservoir, rather than a sandstone. Carbonate rock is more difficult to produce from, and therefore this is a more challenging potential project.”
Routledge said earlier drilling data had been insufficient to confirm whether Ranger could be developed commercially. “The prior wells, the two wells we drilled, [I] don’t believe have given us enough data to understand whether there’s an economic project,” he noted.
To address that, ExxonMobil is now drilling the Ranger-3 well and conducting additional tests. “We’re drilling the Ranger-3 well, and then we’re going to run a drill stem test and also stimulate the reservoir to see whether we can economically produce it,” Routledge said.
Ranger still holds ranking as Exxon’s deepest well drilled in Guyana’s Stabroek Block | OilNOW
The Ranger-3 site lies about 136.69 nautical miles (253.16 kilometers) off Guyana’s coast and covers one square kilometer. Ranger was first discovered in 2018, marking Exxon’s sixth find in the Stabroek Block and the deepest that year, situated some 60 miles northwest of the Liza field.
Initial estimates from Rystad Energy in 2018 placed Ranger’s potential at 346 million barrels of oil. That figure was revised to 432 million in 2022, and later that year, S&P Global Platts lifted the range to between 500 and 600 million barrels.
Ranger sits within a carbonate play, a reservoir type composed largely of marine organism fragments, coral, and algae, which are known for being more porous and chemically reactive than sandstone formations.
