ExxonMobil on Thursday said it has made a natural gas discovery offshore Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean at the Glaucus-1 well wrapping up what has been a good month with two major discoveries made earlier in February in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana.
In a press release, ExxonMobil said that Glaucus-1, located in Block 10, encountered a gas-bearing reservoir of approximately 436 feet (133 meters) and that it was safely drilled to 13,780 feet (4,200 meters) depth in 6,769 feet (2,063 meters) of water.
It said that based on preliminary interpretation of the well data, the discovery could represent an in-place natural gas resource of approximately 5 trillion to 8 trillion cubic feet (142 billion to 227 billion cubic meters). It said however that further analysis in the coming months will be required to better determine the resource potential.
“These are encouraging results in a frontier exploration area,” Steve Greenlee, President of ExxonMobil Exploration Company, is quoted as saying. “The potential for this newly discovered resource to serve as an energy source for regional and global markets will be evaluated further.”
According to the press release, Glaucus-1 was the second of a two-well drilling programme in Block 10. It said that the first well, Delphyne-1, did not encounter commercial quantities of hydrocarbons.
The release said that Block 10 is 635,554 acres (2,572 square kilometers) and that ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Cyprus (Offshore) Limited is operator and holds 60 percent interest in the block. Qatar Petroleum International Upstream O.P.C. holds 40 percent interest, the release said.
On February 6, 2019, ExxonMobil and its joint venture partners HESS and CNOOC Nexen announced their 11th and 12th discoveries made at Tilapia-1 and Haimara-1 wells respectively in the southeast section of Stabroek Block. ExxonMobil is the majority shareholder (45 percent) in the Stabroek Block with HESS having a 30 percent stake and CNOOC Nexen having a 25 percent stake.
These discoveries offshore Guyana added to the recently updated estimate of the discovered recoverable resource to more than 5 billion oil-equivalent barrels since the first discovery was made in May 2015.
