After finding heavy oil last year on its Orinduik block, Tullow Oil had said in November that it needed time to assess the results of its finds along with the possibilities of developing same.
Eight months later, it is still to tell the market what is its final decision. In a recent interview with The Energy Year, Executive Vice-President of Tullow Oil, Ian Cloke was asked about the next step for its Guyana assets. Cloke said, “At the moment, we are only focusing on analyzing all the prospects in Guyana. We had exciting well results in 2019 in the Tertiary and the Cretaceous but we need to do more work to assess our next steps.”
The Vice President added, “Now we’re taking time to rebuild the inventory and to understand what the next series of prospects will be. Further developments will very much depend on capital allocation going forward.”(See link for full interview: https://theenergyyear.com/articles/a-time-for-top-tier-exploration/)
Last year, the UK oil company had completed a three-well exploration campaign in Guyana, drilling the Jethro-1 and Joe-1 wells in the Orinduik licence that it operates and the Carapa-1 well in the non-operated Kanuku licence.
In the Orinduik Block, the Jethro-1 and Joe-1 wells discovered 55 metres and 14 metres of net oil pay, respectively in Tertiary-age reservoirs. Full analysis of the oil found indicated both deepwater discoveries contained heavy oil with high sulphur content. In the Kanuku block, operated by Repsol, the Carapa-1 well drilled in a water depth of 80 metres discovered four metres of net oil pay containing good quality low sulphur oil, but in poorly developed reservoirs of Cretaceous age. The Carapa-1 well confirmed the extension of the prolific lighter oil hydrocarbon play in the Stabroek Block which is adjacent to Tullow’s acreage.
Upon reviewing the foregoing, Tullow officials said that the Joe and Jethro discoveries in Guyana were ultimately disappointing with lower oil quality discovered than originally prognosed, and investors were frustrated.
In January last, it was disclosed by company Executives that a drilling programme offshore Guyana is highly unlikely.
