Guyana’s fifth oil discovery was announced last Thursday, but the actual resource size of the recent discovery will not be known 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).
Exxon’s Public and Government Affairs Director, Kimberly Brasington
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 metres) 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 (5622 metres) in 5912 feet (1802 metres) 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 of oil equivalent barrels in 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 of the Liza and Payara fields. Announcements on the barrel equivalent of the hydrocarbon found 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 place Stabroek Block’s gross resources between 2.25 billion to 75 billion 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 and 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 Stena Carron drillship should be moving to the Ranger filed over the next two weeks.
