Major drill campaigns happening at multiple blocks in busiest period yet for Guyana offshore

Rigs are on the hunt for commercial crude at three blocks offshore Guyana, all at the same time. Drill campaigns are underway at the Stabroek, Canje and Corentyne blocks in what is now the busiest period the offshore basin has seen since oil was first discovered in 2015.

At the Stabroek block, the largest and usually busiest acreage, a major line-up of prospects is being targeted by operator ExxonMobil and co-venturers Hess and CNOOC.

These include the Pinktail-1 exploration well, located 5 miles southeast of Yellowtail-1, the Tripletail- 2 appraisal well, located 5 miles south of Tripletail-1, the Cataback-1 exploration well, located 4.5 miles southeast of the Turbot-1 discovery and Mako-2, covering an area of 0.29 square nautical miles. Development drilling operations are also taking place at the Liza and Payara fields.

In the adjacent Canje block where ExxonMobil is also the operator, exploration drilling is underway at the Sapote-1 prospect located approximately 126 nautical miles (233.4 kilometres) from the coast covering an area of 0.29 square nautical miles. Sapote will be the third well to be drilled on the Canje block this year and follows Bulletwood and Jabillo which both failed to encounter commercial volumes of hydrocarbons.

Meanwhile on the Corentyne block, CGX Energy is drilling the Kawa-1 prospect located approximately 90 nautical miles (167 kilometers) offshore covering an area of 4.7 square nautical miles (16.25 square kilometres).

So far, 22 commercial discoveries have been made at the Stabroek block amounting to more than 9 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources. It is expected that this estimate will be revised upwards this year as more volumes are being discovered on the block.

Outside of the Stabroek block six discoveries were made, but these have been a combination of heavy oil and non-commercial strikes so far. Commercial discoveries at the Canje and Corentyne blocks will prove that massive reservoirs are not restricted to the prolific Stabroek license and will further derisk the oil-rich Guyana basin.