Guyana’s fifth oil discovery was announced last Thursday but knowing the actual resource size of the recent discovery will not be certain until 2018.
Quantifying the barrel equivalent of Guyana’s most recent oil find at the Turbot-1 well by ExxonMobil will require further analysis of the data that was collected, Exxon’s Public and Government Affairs Director Kimberly Brasington explained to the Department of Public Information (DPI).
Drilling of Turbot-1, which is located in the Stabroek Block, began in August by ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited. A reservoir of 75 feet (23 meters) of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone was encountered.
“What our announcement indicated is that while drilling we encountered hydrocarbon. And so, because everybody is watching so closely now we didn’t want to wait,” Brasington noted. By the end of September, Turbot-1 was drilled to 18,445 feet (5,622 meters) in 5,912 feet (1,802 meters) of water. In fact, drilling of Turbot-1 is ongoing.”
However, Brasington cautioned that data generated from Turbot-1 is not sufficient “to say with certainty the volume”, that is, oil equivalent barrels of this new field.
“They’re already looking at the data but they are going to finish up at Turbot and continue to assess all the data they gathered from drilling this well. And then we will come back in 2018 to drill a second well that will help us to calibrate and be in a better position to announce what we think is the estimated resource size,” Brasington explained.
The company’s decision was similar during the exploration or the Liza and Payara fields. Announcements on the barrel equivalent of the hydrocarbon in those fields were made after the subsequent drilling of Liza-2 and 3 and Payara 2.
The Liza and Payara fields together with the Liza Deep and Snoek wells places the Stabroek Block gross resources between 2.25B to 75B oil equivalent barrels.
As Exxon and its partners, Hess Corporation and CNOOC Nexen, continue exploration in the Stabroek Block, “there is more unknown, uncertainty” in the geology on the ocean floor as exploration moves away from the Liza field Brasington said.
Turbo -1 is located 30 miles east of the Liza Phase One project. Even the newest drill field, Ranger is located further from the Liza, Payara groupings.
“Ranger is exciting. It’s another unknown…the geology under the ground it looks different. We’re optimistic and excited and our partners and everybody wants to continue exploring,” Brasington said.
Meantime, the Stenna Carron drillship is estimated to move to the Ranger filed over the next two weeks.
