– Tullow/Repsol joint venture drilling to commence April 2011
A delegation from Tullow Oil, a London-based Company, met President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday to share with him their excitement about commencing the drilling for oil in the Guyana basin. The company has invested hugely in the Jaguar well and is pursuing the exploration through a joint venture with REPSOL, a leading international oil exploration company out of Spain. The process is expected to commence in April, 2011.
The visiting delegation was headed by Exploration Director of Tullow Oil, Dr. Angus McCoss. He was accompanied by Manager of the Petroleum Division in the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), Noel Dennison.
Dr. Angus told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that he conveyed to the Guyanese Head of State his company’s commitment to drill and hopefully make a successful discovery.
“It’s an exploration well, it’s a wildcat well, there’s a lot of geological risk… but we are willing to give it a shot, to invest in this well to try to find oil or gas for Guyana,” Dr McCross said.
The company’s aggregate investment will be to the tune of US$60M which, according to Dr McCross, will fund the “risk of making a discovery through the Jaguar well.”
The Tullow/Repsol joint venture joins the list of reputable foreign companies racing for the search of oil offshore Guyana. Among them are CGX of Canada
Tullow Guyana has a 30% share in the Guyana Maritime Licence in Georgetown. In September, the company signed a new deepwater license offshore Suriname.

CGX Energy Incorporated has done a significant degree of work since being given the green light to commence operations. In January, 2009, the company had announced that it had completed shooting of the 1,839 square kilometer 3D seismic survey on CGX’s 25% Georgetown Petroleum Prospecting Licence (PPL).
Guyana is 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.
Additionally, Government would be receiving a cash flow of 53 percent, and the oil company 43 percent. It is also predicted that the impact on Guyana’s development would be phenomenal as 650 persons per year would gain employment.
President Jagdeo had said on several occasions that the discovery of oil will lead to an explosion of associated services to the oil and gas industry, as well as other auxiliary services, such as the hotels.
On a recent outreach to Berbice in August this year, President Jagdeo had assured residents of the county that it will be at the hub of the development chain, with a deep water harbour and a bridge across the Corentyne, River among the highlights. (GINA)