OIL giant Tullow Oil has brought forward its drilling programme in Guyana where Exxon Mobil has discovered billions of barrels of oil.

According to Tullow’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Paul McDade, the Dublin-listed company had originally planned to start drilling wells at the end of 2019, but was set to begin in the second quarter because of the excitement over Exxon’s nearby discoveries.

According to reports, while Tullow acquired new licences off Ivory Coast, Suriname, and Peru in 2018, its focus will be on Guyana, where Exxon found five billion barrels of recoverable oil.

In a trading update on Tuesday, Tullow, which was founded 34 years ago by Aidan Heavey, said it will drill the Jethro prospect in the second quarter of 2019, as the first of two planned wells on the Orinduik block in Guyana.

A prospect called Carapa will be tested on the Kanuku licence in Guyana, in the third quarter of 2019. Tullow expects production to be in the region of 93,000-101,000 barrels of oil per day in 2019. Tullow will drill three wildcat wells in Guyana.

These are high-potential, high-risk wells in the world’s newest oil “hot spot” and the company was excited about the opportunity that the licences in Guyana offer.

“In addition, we continue to work up other drilling prospects in highly prospective areas across Africa and South America for drilling in 2020 and beyond,” said Tullow.
Prospect selection among the JV Partners was on-going for the second planned well on the Orinduik Block.

The success of the neighbouring Hammerhead-1 well in August 2018, only seven kilometres from the Orinduik block boundary, had further de-risked that acreage. Tullow and its partners were in the final stages of contracting a Drillship for the Orinduik drilling programme.

In 2018, Tullow increased its equity share in the Kanuku licence, offshore Guyana, from 30 per cent to 37.5 per cent through a farm-in deal with Repsol.
Tullow Oil is a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company. The group has interests in over 80 exploration and production licences across 16 countries which are managed as three Business Delivery Teams: West Africa, East Africa and New Ventures.