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Both Kaieteur and Stabroek, along with a third ExxonMobil is reportedly more optimistic
block known as Canje, are operated by the US about Canje, which lies to the east of Stabroek.
super-major ExxonMobil. Jersey-headquartered Westmount Energy, an
Equity in Kaieteur is currently divided indirect shareholder in both Canje and Kaie-
between Esso Production & Exploration Guy- teur, said in its latest interim financial statement
ana, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, with 35%; that the former block might comprise as much
Cataleya, with 25%; Ratio Guyana, a subsidiary as 10bn barrels of recoverable oil.
of Ratio Petroleum (Israel), with 25%; and the This is more than the amount believed to lie
US independent Hess, with 10%. within Stabroek, which is believed to contain
The partners recently finished drilling Tan- 9bn barrels.
ager-1, their first exploration well, at the block. According to Westmount, drilling work on
Earlier this month, they revealed that they had Canje’s first exploration well – Bulletwood-1,
found crude oil in the well, but not in quantities which will target a prospect described as “a ‘Liza
large enough to justify stand-alone commercial look-alike’ confined channel complex – is due to
development. begin before the end of 2020. ™

SURINAME
Maersk Drilling set to provide

drilling units to Total for Block 58

MAERSK Drilling (Denmark) is on track to
win a contract for the delivery of two deepwater
drilling units to Total (France) for work at Block
58 offshore Suriname.
In a statement dated November 24, Maersk
Drilling reported that it had received a condi-
tional letter of award (CLoA) from Total. The
letter provides for the French major to use the
Maersk Valiant drillship and the Maersk Devel-
oper semi-submersible rig to sink two explora-
tion and appraisal wells at Block 58, assuming
that the parties are able to finalise a contract, the
statement said.
Maersk Drilling did not indicate when it
expected to wrap up negotiations with Total. But
it did say that the French giant was scheduled to
spud the first of the two wells in early 2021 and
would carry out the drilling programme over a
period of around 500 days. It also put the value of
the contract, which includes integrated services
and rig upgrades, at approximately $100mn.
Morten Kelstrup, the chief operating officer
of Maersk Drilling, described the CLoA as a Apache and Total have already found oil offshore Suriname (Image: Apache)
positive development for his company. “We’re
delighted to get this opportunity to add further said it may seek to acquire an equity stake in the
to our long-standing relationship with Total block at some point in the future.
through a two-rig contract, building on our pre- Apache and Total have discovered oil in all
vious collaboration on deepwater exploration three of the wells they have completed at Block
projects and on Maersk Drilling’s recent expe- 58 – Maka Central-1, Sapakara-1 and Kwask-
rience with starting up operations in Suriname wasi-1. They are currently at work on their
for Maersk Developer,” he was quoted as saying fourth exploration well, Keskesi-1, and their
in the statement. next drilling target will be the Bonboni section
Equity in Block 58% is currently split 50:50 of the licence area. To date, all of the partners’
between Apache (US), the original operator of crude oil discoveries lie along the same trend.
the project, and Total, which is in the process Apache has already made multiple statements
of assuming the operatorship. Staatsolie, the announcing the discovery of oil, condensate and
national oil company (NOC) of Suriname, has natural gas reserves there. ™

Week 47 26•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13