THE Stena Forth Class Three drillship, to be utilised to drill two wells in the Orinduik Block, has arrived in Guyana. The drillship is expected to spud the Jethro Lobe prospect offshore Guyana in 2019 and the Joe prospect — located nearby — right after.

Tullow Oil owns 60 per cent interest in the Orinduik block; Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas Ltd. holds 15 per cent and Total owns 25 per cent.

The companies involved are anticipating a 40 per cent chance of success for both prospects which are being hailed as “potentially transformational wells”.

Meanwhile, there are plans to drill up to six additional wells on the Orinduik block across 15 prospects.

According to OilNOW, Eco Atlantic has said the Orinduik Block could contain as much as four billion barrels of recoverable oil. Orinduik is located next to the prolific Stabroek Block where US oil major, ExxonMobil, has already found more than 5.5 billion barrels of crude.
Thus far, US ExxonMobil has four drill ships in its fleet – the Noble Tom Madden which is working on the Yellowtail Well, the Hammerhead-Two; the Stena Carron which is completing a well test at the Longtail-One discovery to be followed by the drilling of another well at the Ranger discovery; Noble Bob Douglas working at the Liza Phase One development and the Noble Don Taylor.

The Stena Forth drillship has been operating for Tullow in West Africa on an existing contract and will now transition to Guyana, fully crewed and with experienced personnel. A smooth transition and with less rig-up and training time is expected.

It was explained to this newspaper last year by Tullow Oil’s spokesman, George Cazenove, that after a period of 30-45 days post drilling, the results of the Jethro Lobe prospect should be available.

Meanwhile, Chief Operating Officer at Eco Atlantic, Colin Kinley has stated that with 13 discoveries in just three years from ExxonMobil’s adjacent Stabroek Block totaling over 5.5 billion of barrels of oil equivalent, the companies’ commitment has been recharged.