THE Exon Mobil Corporation has announced a significant oil discovery on the Stabroek Block, located approximately 120 miles offshore Guyana. The well was drilled by ExxonMobil affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, and encountered more than 295 feet (90 metres) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs.
According to a release, it was safely drilled to 17,825 feet (5,433 meters) in 5,719 feet (1,743 meters) of water. The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometers).
“I am encouraged by the results of the first well on the Stabroek Block,” said Stephen Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company.
“Over the coming months, we will work to determine the commercial viability of the discovered resource, as well as evaluate other resource potential on the block.”
The well was spud on March 5, 2015 and the well data will be analysed in the coming months to better determine the full resource potential.
Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited holds 45 per cent interest, Hess Guyana Exploration Limited holds 30 per cent and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Limited holds 25 per cent.
Two weeks ago, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry had announced that ESSO exploration well, the Liza-1 on the Stabroek Block, using the drill-ship, “Deepwater Champion,” located approximately 120 miles offshore Guyana, had encountered hydrocarbons.
In 2012, the United States Geological Survey ranked Guyana as having the second most attractive under-explored basin in the world, with a potential of 15.2 billion barrels of oil and, were a discovery to be made, production targets would be estimated at 50 million barrels per year, which would be equivalent to 140,000 barrels per day.
At a deep-water exploration and energy governance and capacity initiative workshop held recently, then Natural Resources and the Environment Minister Robert Persaud noted that Guyana has started a very elaborate and comprehensive process in preparing for the oil and gas economy.
He had also commended the US Government for its continued technical and other forms of assistance in this regard, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.
“I want to commend the US Government and the staff for their abiding support over the years in facilitating workshops in building capacity as we prepare our oil and gas sector in all of its aspects in terms of how do we manage revenues and ensure transparency, and also how do we look at safety and technology and very critically how do we reach out for investment,” the minister had pointed out.
In addition, he emphasised that the US has been an important ally in ensuring that Guyana mobilise the investment and undertake efforts to develop the country’s natural resources even in the face of some unjustified and unwarranted attempts by some external forces, who seek to push back Government’s efforts in developing the natural resources both off and onshore.
In January this year, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry launched a policy on upstream oil and gas at a national stakeholders’ forum at the Herdmanston Lodge, Georgetown.