Tullow Oil’s junior partner at the Orinduik Block, Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas Ltd. on Tuesday announced that it has commenced drilling of the Joe prospect offshore Guyana. The company spud Joe-1, the second exploration well on the Orinduik Block, at 14.45hrs (Local Guyana time) on Sunday using the Stena Forth drillship, which previously drilled the recently announced Jethro discovery.
“Eco and its partners on the Orinduik Block, Tullow Guyana B.V. (“Tullow”) (Operator, 60% Working Interest (“WI”)) and Total E&P Guyana B.V. (“Total”) (25% WI), estimate the well will take approximately three weeks to drill,” said the company in a press release.
According to the company, the Joe prospect is a Tertiary feature on the northern part of the Orinduik Block in approximately 700 meters of water “and is estimated by Gustavson Associates to hold 148.3being the mboe of gross unrisked prospective oil resources (P50).”
The release said with Joe-1 being the second of two wells to be drilled on the block for this year, Eco is fully funded for a further six potential exploration, appraisal or development wells on the Orinduik Block.
Colin Kinley, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder, commented: “We are very pleased to have spudded on Sunday our second exploration well on Orinduik. After the discovery made on Jethro in the Lower Tertiary, which greatly derisked that age section throughout the block, we are now moving to an Upper Tertiary target in the Joe prospect where we are targeting over 100mmboe. If a further discovery is made, it will further enhance the value of the block with this shallower play. The estimated chance of success for Joe is the same as Jethro, although it is a completely different play, and we are confident in our 3D interpretation as we were ahead of the Jethro-1 discovery. “We look forward to continued success in our exploration efforts as we move forward to define the plays available to us in all the various geological ages and to develop this block.”
In Guyana, Eco Guyana holds a 15% working interest alongside Total (25%) and Tullow Oil (60%) in the 1,800km2 Orinduik Block in shallow to deep water (70m to 1,350m) of the prospective Suriname-Guyana basin.
Being called a major discovery, the Jethro-1 encountered 180.5 feet (55 meters) of net high-quality oil pay in excellent Lower Tertiary sandstone reservoirs which supports recoverable oil resources. The Joe prospect is described as “a stratigraphic channel fill and overbank sand body that trends to the northwest on the northern part of the Orinduik Block in approximately 700 meters of water.”
The release said the Joe-1 prospect is a Tertiary feature and is estimated to hold 148.3mmboe of gross unrisked prospective oil resources and the chance of success is also estimated to be 43.2%.
