Even though Tullow Oil has suffered a year of shrinking share prices and the inability to make dividend payments, its partners, Eco Atlantic and Total agree that the British Operator should forge ahead with further exploration in the Orinduik Block where heavy oil was confirmed in the Joe-1 ad Jethro-1 wells.
Making this announcement was head of Eco Atlantic, Gil Holzman whose company holds a 15 percent working interest in the Orinduik license. Holzman said that the Joint Venture (JV) Partners have elected to enter the next exploration phase of the Orinduik Petroleum Agreement signed on January 14, 2016, and have since submitted their official notice to the Department of Energy.
Holzman said, “We are very pleased that the JV Partners have unanimously elected to enter into the next phase of exploration and development at the Orinduik Block. We have met and exceeded all of the licence commitments to date and stand ready to further appraise and explore the significant hydrocarbon potential of the Orinduik Block licence, both in the proven discoveries of the Tertiary layer and in the deeper Cretaceous layer, estimated to hold an additional 3.2 billion barrels of oil…”
The exploration programme that Tullow and its partners intend to pursue will also take them into the First Renewal Period, which will commence from 14th January, 2020. Following this, the Joint Venture Partners will maintain control of the licence for three years, through to 13th January, 2023, and until the second renewal period.
The work completed by Tullow, which is the operator of the Block includes the completion of a 2,550 km2 3D seismic programme in 2017 and the drilling of two exploration wells, both leading to discoveries on Jethro-1 and Joe-1.
