UK-based Tullow Oil has confirmed that it will drill the Goliathberg-Voltzberg North prospect at Suriname’s Block 47 this year. The prospect lies approximately 260 kilometres off the coast of the country in 1,900 metres of water and is one of a series of leads and prospects on the flank of the Demerara High.
“The Goliathberg-Voltzberg North well in Block 47 is planned to be drilled in the fourth quarter of 2020 testing dual targets in the Cretaceous turbidite play in approximately 1,900 metres of water,” the company said on Wednesday.
In January, Apache and Total announced that they had made a significant oil discovery at the Maka Central-1 well at Suriname’s Block 58, making it the first oil strike offshore the South American country.
Tullow will be looking to replicate this success in Suriname even as it continues to examine options in neighbouring Guyana where it completed a three-well exploration campaign in 2019. The company drilled the Jethro-1 and Joe-1 wells in the Tullow-operated Orinduik licence and the Carapa-1 well in the Repsol Kanuku licence.
In the Orinduik Block, the Jethro-1 and Joe-1 wells discovered 55 metres and 14 metres of net oil pay, respectively in Tertiary-age reservoirs. Full analysis of the oil found indicated both deepwater discoveries contained heavy oil with high sulphur content.
In the Kanuku block, the Carapa-1 well drilled in a water depth of 80 metres discovered four metres of net oil pay containing good quality low sulphur oil, but in poorly developed reservoirs of Cretaceous age. The Carapa-1 well confirmed the extension of the prolific lighter oil hydrocarbon play in the Stabroek Block which is adjacent to Tullow’s acreage.
Tullow said the next steps in Guyana will be to integrate the three well results into updated geological and geophysical models, with a focus on the high grading of the Cretaceous portfolio where better quality oil is expected across both the Kanuku and Orinduik blocks.
ExxonMobil’s unprecedented success at Guyana’s Stabroek Block has reignited interest in the basin which has seen heightened exploration activity over the last year. The US oil major has made a record 16 discoveries in Guyana since 2015 amounting to more than 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
