Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 05 2020

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The Orinduik block lies offshore Guyana (Image: Tullow Oil)
Tullow raises resource estimate for Orinduik block
ECO-ATLANTIC Oil & Gas (Canada) said earlier this week that Gustavson Associates, an independent third-party auditor, had published a new competent persons report (CPR) on the Orinduik block, located o shore Guyana. e CPR estimates the block’s gross prospective resources at 5.141bn barrels of oil, marking a 29% increase on the previous gure, it said in a statement dated February 3.
In the statement, Eco Atlantic reported that the partners in the Orinduik project were scheduled to review the report at a meeting in the rst half of February. At that meeting, it said, the shareholders will “evaluate recent drilling results, de ne drilling targets and consider the budgets and dates for future drilling.”
Equity in Orinduik is split between Tullow Oil (UK/Ireland, operator), with 60%; Total (France), with 25%, and Eco Atlantic, with 15%.
Eco-Atlantic’s remarks came across as opti- mistic about the fate of Orinduik, despite the setbacks experienced last year when one of the exploration wells drilled at the block turned up sour crude rather than a more valuable light sweet grade. It said that the partners had iden- ti ed 22 prospects at the block, “including 11 leads in the Upper Cretaceous horizon.”
It added: “[ e] majority of the project leads have over a 30% or better chance of success
(COS), enhanced by the recent discovery of light oil [at] the Kanuku block to the south of Orinduik.”
Colin Kinley, Eco Atlantic’s co-founder and CEO, also struck an optimistic note, saying that recent oil nds at nearby licence areas – includ- ing Stabroek, where ExxonMobil (US) is leading development – were a good sign for his com- pany. “ e understanding of our resources has gained strength and momentum with the dis- coveries we made in the Tertiary last summer and the recent discovery of light oil in Carapa-1, made on the Kanuku block to the south of us,” he said. “ is has also been driven by the discov- er[y] of over 8bn barrels of oil immediately east of us by ExxonMobil.”
Kinley also indicated that Tullow and its partners were eager to move forward with exploration drilling.
“Significant exploration potential is what brought us into Guyana before the rst barrel was discovered by ExxonMobil,” he said. “ e elements are all here. We know that the geol- ogy and the geography support us, and we have a great team to ne tune the next drilling tar- gets. We have strong partners in Eco and on the block, so as we de ne our targets, we are well funded and are considering our options to drill as soon as practically possible.” ™
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