Tullow’s partner begins drilling 2nd well

The Stena Forth drill ship is drilling Eco’s well

…as race for oil in Orinduik block heats up

Eco Atlantic Oil and Gas, the partner of the oil company that recently found oil in the Orinduik block, has begun drilling a well of its own using the same drill ship that brought British-owned Tullow its first oil find in Guyana.
According to a release from the company on Tuesday, drilling on the Joe-1 well began on Sunday using the Stena Forth drill ship. Eco Atlantic further explained that it will take approximately three weeks to drill this well.
The well itself is located in approximately 700 metres of water. Estimates by international natural resource consultants Gustavson Associates state that it might hold 148 millions of barrels of oil.
In a statement, Chief Operating Officer of Eco Atlantic, Colin Kinley, expressed pleasure at the commencement of the operation. According to Kinley, a further discovery will go a great way in de-risking the rest of the basin.
“We are very pleased to have spudded on Sunday our second exploration well on Orinduik. After the discovery made on Jethro in the Lower Tertiary, which greatly de-risked that age section throughout the block, we are now moving to an Upper Tertiary target in the Joe prospect where we are targeting over 100mmboe. If a further discovery is made, it will further enhance the value of the block with this shallower play”.
“The estimated chance of success for Joe is the same as Jethro, although it is a completely different play, and we are confident in our 3D interpretation as we were ahead of the Jethro-1 discovery. We look forward to continued success in our exploration efforts as we move forward to define the plays available to us in all the various geological ages and to develop this block,” Kinley was quoted as saying.

“Joe”
Joe is the second of Eco’s two-well drill programme in Guyana for this year. The company also has plans and funding for a further six potential explorations, appraisal or development wells on the Orinduik Block.
Eco Atlantic had previously announced that drilling on the Joe prospect will begin in mid-July of this year. They had announced that the Stena Forth drillship will move directly to the Joe after it had finished drilling the Jethro Lobe Well in the Orinduik Block.
It has been reported that the Joe will cost Eco approximately US$3 million to drill. A recently published report from Gustavson Associates has estimated that the well has a 43.2 per cent chance of success.
The Orinduik oil block is just a few kilometres from Exxon’s discoveries in the Liza and Payara fields. It is under the administration of Eco Guyana and Tullow, who signed a 10-year Petroleum Prospecting licence and Production Sharing Agreement with Guyana in 2016. Total E and P Activities Petrolieres entered the fray in 2017, partnering with Eco with the option to get a 25 per cent share in the Block. It exercised that option last year.
Recently, the spotlight has been on Tullow after it discovered oil in commercial quantities at the Jethro-1 exploration well in the Orinduik Block. This was the first discovery in the Orinduik Block.
The Jethro-1 well was drilled by the Stena Forth drillship to a total depth of 4400 metres in approximately 1350 metres of water. According to a statement from the company, evaluation of the logging data confirmed that Jethro-1 comprises high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs of Lower Tertiary age, which simply means they date back to millions of years ago.
According to the statement, the well encountered 55M of net oil pay, which indicates a recoverable oil resource estimate that exceeds Tullow’s pre-drill forecast of 100 million barrels of oil.
News of the find created waves in financial centres around the world, as well as international news outlets. That very day, August 12, Tullow’s shares jumped by over 19 per cent on the London Stock Exchange to become the biggest gainer on the index.

The Stena Forth drill ship is drilling Eco’s well