Exxon strikes more oil offshore Guyana

United States oil giant ExxonMobil has made two more oil finds offshore Guyana, bringing the total number of discoveries in the Stabroek Block to 12.
The discoveries, which were made at the Tilapia-1 and Haimara-1 wells in the South-west section of the Stabroek Block, were announced by Director of Energy, Dr Mark Bynoe, in a statement on Wednesday. The US-based company also confirmed the finds on its Facebook page.
This new discovery, he said, reinforces the country’s potential to be able to produce more than 750,000 barrels of oil daily by 2025 with at least five floating, production storage and offloading vessels (FPSO) on the Stabroek Block.
According to Dr Bynoe, “this continues to be positive news for the people of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, but the real substance of these finds will come when all Guyanese are able to benefit from these discoveries, whether directly and/or indirectly.”
The US oil giant’s 11th discovery in the Tilapia-1 well is the fourth discovery in the Turbot area that includes Turbot, Longtail and Pluma discoveries. Tilapia-1 encountered approximately 305 feet (93 metres) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir and was drilled to a depth of 18,786 feet (5726 metres) in 5850 feet (1783 metres) of water. The well is located approximately 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometres) West of the Longtail-1 well.
Dr Bynoe noted that the Noble Tom Madden drillship started drilling the well on January 7, 2019 and will next drill the Yellowtail-1 well, approximately six miles (10 kilometres) West of Tilapia-1 in the Turbot area. Baseline 4-D seismic data acquisition is underway, he added.
Meanwhile, the 12th discovery was at the Haimara-1 well which encountered approximately 207 feet (63 metres) of high-quality gas condensate-bearing sandstone reservoir. The well was drilled to a depth of 18,289 feet (5575 metres) in 4590 feet (1399 metres) of water. The Director of Energy pointed out that being located approximately 19 miles (31 kilometres) East of the Pluma-1 discovery, the Haimara-1 is deemed a potential new area for development.
Furthermore, he added that the Stena Carron drillship began drilling the well on January 3, 2019.
These two discoveries come less than two months after ExxonMobil announced its 10th find back in December at the Pluma-1 well, which had increased the estimated recoverable resource for the Stabroek Block to more than five billion oil-equivalent barrels.
Guyana is now home to the world’s biggest new deepwater oil discovery. ExxonMobil has been keen to push development of the oil reserves and is expected to commence production sometime later this year or early 2020.