Exxonmobil Guyana says assessments are still ongoing to determine what the updated total estimated recoverable reserves in the 6.6 million acres Stabroek Block now stands at.
The US oil major announced its eighth oil discovery offshore Guyana at the Longtail-1 well on Wednesday. The company said Longtail together with the previous discovery at Turbot, located nearby, are estimated to be around 500 million oil equivalent barrels.
Prior to the Longtail discovery, the company had estimated total recoverable reserves in the block to be around 3.2 billion barrels which included Turbot but excluded Ranger and Pacora.
The company’s Senior Director, Public and Government Affairs, Kimberly Brasington, explained the numbers and clarified how they add up, during an interview with OilNOW on Thursday. “The total estimate resource right now for the Stabroek Block is more than 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil,” She said.
Brasington added that what could be confusing is the announcement that Longtail and Turbot are estimated to contain a total of 500 million barrels, and as such, an error could be made in adding that to the previous total estimated resource for the block which is 3.2 billion barrels. “It’s easy to take the 3.2 and add the 500 million and get a number of 3.7, but we’re just not quite there yet because it turns out Turbot is already included in that 3.2, so we can’t double dip. We can confidently say it is more than 3.2 billion barrels.”
The company official said it is still too early to assess since only one well has been drilled so far at Longtail and much more data is needed before the volume of oil discovered can be estimated. This also applies to Ranger, where a second well is planned to be drilled this year.
The eight discoveries made to date in the Stabroek Block by ExxonMobil and its joint venture partners Hess and CNOOC Nexen, are; Longtail, Pacora, Liza, Payara, Liza Deep, Snoek, Turbot and Ranger. This unprecedented string of discoveries in Guyana, beginning in 2015, has only been interrupted by two dry holes – Skipjack and Sorubim.
