The most recent string of discoveries made this year at Guyana’s Stabroek Block are being recognized for their significant volumes and sand quality. They’ve also played a key role in ramping up the estimated gross recoverable resources to 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
“I think the resource estimate was a combination of a lot of things. Obviously, the big things were Whiptail 1 and Whiptail 2 and Pinktail and Cataback,” Hess Corporation’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Greg Hill told investors last week. Hess has a 30% stake in the giant Stabroek Block where ExxonMobil is operator with 45% interest and co-venturer CNOOC holds 25%.
Cataback will help determine volume of fluids in area close to Turbot/Tripletail
Hill said those discoveries were the “primary drivers” behind the estimated recoverable resource increase from greater than 9 billion to approximately 10 billion boe.
“I think it’s important to also remember that in spite of that there is still multibillion barrels of additional upside above and beyond this 10 billion barrels already,” he said.
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In July the co-venturers announced that the Whiptail 1 and 2 wells encountered 246 feet and 167 feet of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs respectively. In September, they announced that the Pinktail 1 well located approximately 22 miles southeast of Liza 1 encountered 220 feet of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. Then in October, they announced a discovery at Cataback-1 located approximately 4 miles east of Turbot 1. The well encountered 203 feet of high-quality hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs, of which approximately 102 feet was oil bearing.
“Regarding sand quality, it’s all very good, I mean, everything we’ve discovered this year has extraordinary sand quality,” Hill said, pointing out that these are very large, very high-quality reservoirs in all three of the discoveries. “So, there is no issues with sand quality or reservoir quality in any of those wells.”
