THE Government of Guyana and Repsol Exploracion S.A., operator of the Georgetown Block, along with officials of the consortium involved in the drilling operations of the Jaguar-1 well offshore Guyana, held a meeting on July 31 to discuss the preliminary outcomes of the project and potential future plans. The partners to the Georgetown Block are Tullow Oil Plc (30%), CGX Resources Inc (25%), YPF Guyana Ltd (30%) and Repsol Exploracion S.A. (15%).
Drilling of the Jaguar-1 well was stopped at a depth of 15,998 feet, and the decision to plug and abandon the well was taken unanimously by all partners, based on the high pressures encountered.
This decision to abandon the well was fully supported by the Government of Guyana.
While the well was planned as a high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) well, actual pressures observed were significantly higher than predicted, and continuing to deepen the well would not have been within the well design parameters to contain those pressures.
The drilling of the well progressed to plan in the early stages, but high formation pressures found deeper dictated the plugging and abandonment of the well.
Abandonment was achieved as planned, and subsequent monitoring of the site is also planned for the immediate future.
While Repsol and consortium partners continue to evaluate all of the data gathered during the drilling of Jaguar-1, they shared preliminary findings with Government officials, which included evidence of petroleum occurrences, and indicated their future plans to determine the viability of reaching the primary objective of Jaguar 1.
Based on the now known pressures, a new well may yet be drilled to the primary and secondary targets deeper than 18,000 ft, and as deep as 21,500 ft.
The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) has been mandated to work with the consortium, on the best way forward to achieve an early restart of exploration drilling on the Georgetown Block.
In this regard, discussions have been initiated between the Government and the consortium.