New oil producer Guyana has been at the top of the global list for discovered resources since U.S oil major ExxonMobil made its first world class discovery in 2015. The company has made a total of 18 discoveries out of 21 exploration wells drilled at the prolific Stabroek block, maintaining an above 80 percent success rate which is unprecedented in the oil and gas industry.
“Rystad Energy data suggests that close to 300 million barrels of oil equivalent has been discovered on average for each exploration well (wildcat and appraisal) drilled in the country over the past six years,” the Norway-based consultancy group said in a new report published Friday.
“With around 16 exploration wells planned, including some in riskier frontier regions, 2021 holds a lot of promise,” says Santosh Kumar, analyst with Rystad Energy’s upstream team.
ExxonMobil Senior Vice President of Upstream, Neil Chapman, told investors last week that the 9 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources the company has discovered so far offshore Guyana is only the tip of the iceberg.
“It’s still early days in the programme but we continue to be very encouraged, and we estimate the resource potential of the basin to be more than double what we’ve already discovered,” he pointed out.
The oil major will be pursuing an aggressive exploration and appraisal drilling programme offshore Guyana this year with multiple prospects targeting the Stabroek and Canje blocks. Just this week the company spudded wells back-to-back in these two blocks using the Stena Carron drill ship, and is conducting appraisal drilling in the Longtail area utilizing the recently arrived Stena DrillMAX rig.
“The Rystad Energy Offshore Rig tracker shows that three drillships are currently located in the greater Liza area performing development drilling activity. The recently arrived Stena DrillMAX already initiated drilling activities on the Longtail-2 appraisal well, while the Stena Carron drillship, which recently concluded drilling Bulletwood-1, has now spud the Jabillo-1 exploration well in the Canje block,” Rystad Energy said.
“We expect to drill more than a dozen exploration and appraisal wells over the next year and several of those would be out with that core area in the southeast of the Stabroek block,” ExxonMobil Guyana President, Alistair Routledge recently told OilNOW.
The southeastern area of the 6.6 million acres Stabroek block is where the bulk of the 18 discoveries have so far been made. Routledge said the company also intends to target wells west of these discoveries. So far, the Ranger well is the farthest the company has drilled in the northwest section of the block and is also the deepest well ever to be drilled at Stabroek.
