US independent Apache Corporation has scooped up the discovery of the year award for its Maka Central-1 oil strike off the coast of Suriname, announced on January 7.
The award was made in conjunction with Wood Mackenzie’s industry-leading annual Exploration Survey at a ceremony held in conjunction with the global natural resources research and consultancy business’ annual Exploration Summit, on June 16.
“The 2019 Discovery of the Year award goes to Maka Central in Suriname. Congratulations to operator Apache and partner Total, farming-in just ahead of well completion, for what looks to be the first of many great finds in Suriname’s new deepwater play,” Dr Andrew Latham, Vice President, Global Exploration Research, at Wood Mackenzie said. “We have already seen follow up success in Block 58 at Sapukara West and more drilling is ongoing.”
Maka Central-1 successfully tested for the presence of hydrocarbons in multiple stacked targets in the upper Cretaceous-aged Campanian and Santonian intervals and encountered both oil and gas condensate. The well was spudded using the drillship Noble Sam Croft with Apache as operator holding a 50% working interest and Total holding a 50% working interest.
WoodMac has said based on its estimate Maka Central-1 contains 300 million barrels of oil, 150 million barrels of condensate and 1.4 trillion cubic feet of gas. According to a report from GlobalData, the discovery has the potential to bring more than US$50 million in revenue per year to the Surinamese Government if it sees similar success to Guyana’s Stabroek Block.
Discovery of the year is also based on Wood Mackenzie’s survey of exploration industry opinion. Over 200 senior business leaders and experts voted for the discovery that they consider to be the most exciting of the year.
