Govt extends Tullow licence in Orinduik Block to 2023

…final approval also granted for Qatar farm-in in oil block

The Government of Guyana has granted Tullow Oil, which is the operator in the Orinduik Block offshore Guyana, and its partners, an extension of its prospecting licence until 2023.

This was made known by Tullow’s partner in the Orinduik Block, Eco Atlantic, in a statement on Monday. According to the company, the approval was granted in the “First renewal period” which will see the Orinduik licence that was originally signed on January 14, 2016, being extended.
According to Eco, the farm-in of Petroleum into the Orinduik Block was also approved with the transfer of shares between Qatar Petroleum and Total E&P Guyana BV. Qatar (40 per cent), in collaboration with Total E&P Guyana BV (60 per cent), will be sharing Total’s previous 25 per cent working interest in the Orinduik Block.
“Accordingly, the JV Partners now comprise Eco Atlantic (15 per cent working interest), Tullow Guyana BV (Operator, 60 per cent working interest) and TOQAP (25 per cent working interest). “The First Renewal Period sees the JV Partners maintain control of the licence through to 13 January 2023 and until the second renewal period,” Eco Atlantic said.

The statement quoted Eco’s Chief Operating Officer, Colin Kinley, lauding the Government for its continued support of their exploration in the Orinduik Block. According to him, the joint venture partners will continue their exploration activities with the use of available geophysical data and evaluations of their Joe and Jethro well discoveries.
“The partnership is focused on its multiple light sweet oil prospects on the Orinduik Block, and we are high-grading candidates for the next drilling program, with the Operator expected to select targets later this year. We will update the market on further drilling plans in due course on our opportunity and prospects in this prolific oil basin,” he was quoted as saying.

Qatar Petroleum
Qatar Petroleum, the national oil and gas company of the Middle Eastern oil producer, has been looking to get in on the action in Guyana’s oil blocks by partnering with Total since 2019.
It was announced back in 2019 that Qatar Petroleum had entered into an agreement with French company Total for a share in the exploration and production of its blocks, with Total selling Qatar Petroleum 40 per cent of its existing interests in the Orinduik and Kanuku blocks.
The Orinduik oil block is just a few kilometres from ExxonMobil’s discoveries in the Liza and Payara fields. It is under the administration of Eco Guyana and Tullow.
It has been a rough two years for Tullow. Last year, it was forced to write off US$1.2 billion in wells that were not financially viable. Included in the 2019 amount is US$60 million for three wells Tullow drilled offshore Guyana but could not continue working on.
The three wells – the Joe, Jethro and Carapa-1, were all deemed not to have been financially viable due to the low-quality oil they contained. At the time, Tullow Executive Chair Dorothy Thompson in her contribution to the 2019 Annual Report, had said that investors were frustrated with the drilling campaign in Guyana.
Tullow had announced last year that it would be abandoning the Carapa-1 well on the Repsol-operated Kanuku licence, which turned up approximately four metres of net oil pay based on preliminary interpretation… below pre-drill estimates.
In 2019, the company had revealed that samples from its other two discoveries at the Jethro-1 and Joe-1 wells in the Orinduik Block showed heavy crudes with high sulphur content – a variety of oil that is less economically viable than the light, sweet crudes found by United States oil giant ExxonMobil right offshore Guyana in the neighbouring Stabroek Block.