The Fangtooth discovery which was announced by ExxonMobil back in January 2022 holds enough oil deposits to underpin its own floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. This was disclosed by Hess Corporation which has a 30% working interest in the Stabroek Block.
Chief Executive Officer and President of the company, John Hess said the majority of the Stabroek Block’s oil has been at 15,000 feet. This depth is referred to as the Upper Campanian or the Cretaceous age. Hess was speaking at the time at the Bernstein’s 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference.
“But what we are finding now is at 18,000 feet, there are sand channels that are actually starting to trap the oil that is also being trapped at 15,000 feet. When we drilled to 18,000 feet, it was never optimally located to drill the biggest prospects,” he said. “This year, however, we drilled a well called Fangtooth that was optimally located at 18,000 feet and we found material oil deposits that, in and of itself, could underpin another FPSO and it is very high-quality oil.”
He added, “Now that we have correlated the wells that we are drilling for, not only at 15,000 but 18,000 feet, we are starting to find other attractive deep prospects so there is a lot of potential in the deep for either tiebacks into the 15,000 feet and to an FPSO or to be a standalone project. So clearly, we are still in the early innings.”
The Fangtooth well was one of the first two discoveries made in the Stabroek Block earlier this year. The well encountered approximately 164 feet (50 meters) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. It was drilled in 6,030 feet (1,838 meters) of water and is located approximately 11 miles (18 kilometers) northwest of the Liza field.
In an interview with OilNOW, Schreiner Parker, Rystad Energy’s Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, said the Norway-based independent energy research and business intelligence company estimates that Fangtooth holds approximately 230 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Guyana scores big again as Exxon hits two more discoveries | OilNOW
The Stabroek block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometers). ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is operator and holds 45% interest. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30% interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited holds 25% interest.
