INITIAL analysis of the oil discovered in the Jethro-One well and the Joe-One well in the Orinduik Block offshore Guyana has shown that the finds are heavy crudes with high sulphur content unlike the preferred light, low sulfur crude found in the Liza field.
While the latter allows for the highest value petroleum products to be derived, Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas Limited (Eco), which holds a 15 per cent working interest in the 1,800 km2 Orinduik Block, has stated that the company “remains optimistic”. Eco’s Joint Venture (JV) partner, Total holds a 25 per cent working interest while its other partner, Tullow Oil holds 60 per cent. Both Eco and Tullow made the announcement on Wednesday.
The companies said that they are assessing the commercial viability of these discoveries considering the quality of the oil, alongside the high-quality reservoir sands and strong overpressure.
“Fluid samples were taken in both of the wells and were sent for analysis by the operator. The complete fluid analysis has not yet been received however, initial results suggest that the samples recovered to date from Jethro-One and Joe-One are mobile heavy crudes, not dissimilar to the commercial heavy crudes in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, the Campos Basin in Brazil, Venezuela and Angola, with high Sulphur content,” ECO stated in a release.
The JV partners have since sought a third party consultant with heavy oil development expertise to “answer our technical queries and provide an initial assessment of several potential development drilling and production scenarios.” Tullow had announced oil discoveries in the Jethro-One well in August and the Joe-One well in September. The Joe-One well brought the total oil discoveries in Guyana to 16, with ExxonMobil and its JV partners responsible for 14 finds in the Stabroek Block.
The Jethro-One well discovered 55 metres of net pay in high-quality sandstone reservoir in the Lower Tertiary and Joe-One encountered 14 metres of net pay, opening a new play in the Upper Tertiary. According to Eco, the Jethro-One discovery has the advantage of 8,500 PSI reservoir (2,600 PSI Overpressure), which increases drive efficiency; high reservoir temperature of 94 degrees Celsius. It also has an estimated flowing well head temperature of 90 degrees, which increases oil mobility and provides an advantage at the floating production facility.
Co?founder and Chief Operating Officer for Eco, Colin R. commented: “Having spent three decades working within the heavy-oil industry, we are very encouraged by the initial analysis of these wells and good parameters that define potential pathways to recovery. The fact that the oil is already hot in the reservoir, and mobile, and has high quality porous sand to travel through, helps to eliminate a great part of the conventional heavy oil challenge. Having 8500 PSI in the porous warm formation is an added advantage to drive the oil to the well. Horizontal well technology can allow excellent access to these thick fields and generally reduces the need for multiple additional wells, leading to lower development cost per barrel.”
Kinley said that the JV partners will keep the market appraised of its progress towards potential commercial production and its plans for its 2020 drilling campaigns even as they remain “extremely confident about the future.”
Meanwhile, Co?Founder and Chief Executive Officer for Eco, Gil Holzman, stated, “Our initial two wells this summer have proven two different oil plays in this highly-prolific basin. The JV Partners are very confident of the potential across the multiple prospects in both the Cretaceous and Tertiary-aged rocks throughout the Orinduik block. This is obviously just the beginning of our journey to unlock the block’s full potential, which, following these initial discoveries, we hope to demonstrate through an updated CPR in the coming weeks.”
Meanwhile, the Carapa well in the non-operated Kanuku licence, which is targeting the Cretaceous play, is currently drilling. The well started at the end of October, with results expected before the year-end.
