With appraisals for all the Stabroek wells still being completed, preliminary estimates by Norwegian Energy Research company, Rystad Energy, show that just three wells alone collectively hold almost 800 million barrels of recoverable oil reserves. The three wells are the Haimara, Tilapia, and Yellowtail. They were discovered this year.
Rystad said that this, along with ExxonMobil’s success rate in the 13 wells drilled so far on the block, represents an impressive 86% with first oil expected in mid-2020.
The remarkable quality and quantity of the finds have moved ExxonMobil to have four drillships operating offshore Guyana by the end of the year.
Following well completion activities for Yellowtail, ExxonMobil said that the Noble Tom Madden will move to the Hammerhead-2 well. Further, Exxon said that the Stena Carron is completing a well test at the Longtail-1 discovery and will then move to the Hammerhead-3 well.
Later in 2019, ExxonMobil said that the Stena Carron will drill a second well at the Ranger discovery while the Noble Bob Douglas drillship is completing development drilling operations for Liza Phase One. ExxonMobil will also add another exploration drillship, the Noble Don Taylor, in the fourth quarter of 2019.
The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres or 26,800 square kilometres. Current discovered recoverable resources are estimated at more than 5.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent reserves. The 13 discoveries on the block to date have established the potential for at least five FPSO vessels producing more than 750,000 barrels of oil per day by 2025.
ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is the operator and holds 45% interest in the Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30% interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited holds 25% interest.
