Oil and gas exploration activities offshore Guyana take place at significant depths with the Tanager-1 well spudded on the Kaieteur block being the deepest well ever to be drilled so far by ExxonMobil off the South American country’s coast.
Tanager reached a total depth of 7,633 metres or 25,042 feet in November 2020. The well failed to encounter commercial hydrocarbons. Other wells topping the 20,000 feet mark include Ranger at 21,161 feet (Stabroek block), Bulletwood at 21,949 feet (Canje block) and Jabillo at 21,243 feet, also on the Canje block.
Other planned wells such as Kawa-1 set to be spudded this month by CGX Energy on the northeast quadrant of the Corentyne block, will also exceed 20,000 feet.
Writing in most recent column published on OilNOW, associate professor of mathematics, and founding member of the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics at Medgar Evers College, Dr. Dr. Terrence Richard Blackman, said for perspective, the Kaieteur Falls is a massive waterfall that is roughly four times higher than Niagara Falls in Canada and twice as high as Victoria Falls in southern Africa.
“The Kaieteur Falls is considered the largest single drop waterfall in the world – “single drop” means that the water does not flow over multiple tiers as it falls; in other words, there’s one massive drop from the top of the waterfall to the bottom,” he pointed out. “The Kaieteur Falls is 741 feet tall. Guyana’s oil and gas explorations take place at depths of 30 Kaieteur Falls beneath the sea!”
Dr. Blackman said given this reality, it is instructive to note that ExxonMobil, operator of the Stabroek, Canje, and Kaieteur blocks, is the only company thus far that has started oil production offshore Guyana.
Since 2015, the company has made 22 discoveries at Stabroek delivering over 9 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources.
