Page 13 - LatAmOil Week 50 2020

LatAmOil GUYANA LatAmOil

Stabroek News, a local newspaper, speculated As of press time, Guyana’s government had
that the issuance of the statement might indicate not responded to the statement from GMSA
that the business associations are worried that and PSC. Irfaan Ali, the country’s president, has
the government is not acting quickly enough said he hopes to make sure that exploration and
to support local service providers and other production contracts are not overly favourable
companies. to foreign investors.
It also raised the question of whether mem- Currently, Guyana has only one producing
bers of the two groups were concerned that most oilfield – Liza-1, a section of the Stabroek block
Guyanese companies were simply too small to operated by ExxonMobil (US). However, more
act as sub-contractors on large-scale offshore oil has been discovered at multiple locations
projects. within Stabroek and also at other blocks. ™ Atlantic LNG shareholders are discussing unitisation (Photo: File)

SURINAME
Petronas reports find in Sloanea-1 well

PETRONAS (Malaysia) and ExxonMobil (US)
have discovered hydrocarbons in the Sloanea
section of Block 52 offshore Suriname.
In a statement dated December 11, Petro-
nas said the partners had made the find in the
Sloanea-1 exploration well. In the statement,
it said that the well had “encountered several
hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone packages with
good reservoir qualities in the Campanian
section.”
ExxonMobil confirmed its Malaysian part-
ner’s announcement in a separate statement. It
asserted that the discovery would lend strength
to the company’s “industry-leading portfolio,
along with its other recent exploration success in
the same basin in Guyana.” (ExxonMobil is the
operator of several blocks in Guyana’s offshore
zone – including Stabroek, which includes Liza-
1, the country’s only producing oilfield.)
As of press time, neither company had com-
mented on the size of the find. They stated,
though, that their next step would be to evalu- Sloanea-1 lies within Block 52 (Image: NVentures)
ate the data collected during drilling. Petronas
remarked that the “well data proves excellent extends ExxonMobil’s leading position in South
calibration of the hydrocarbon potential of the America, building on our successful invest-
block.” ments in Guyana,” he said. “We will continue to
As the operator of Block 52, the Malaysian leverage our deepwater expertise and advanced
company led the drilling of Sloanea-1. It used technology to explore frontier environments
the Maersk Developer rig to sink the well to a with the highest value resource potential.”
depth of 4,780 metres. Rice-Oxley and Cousins were speaking
Petronas is “pleased with the positive results shortly before Fugro (Netherlands) announced
of the well,” said Emeliana Rice-Oxley, the firm’s that it had won a contract from Petronas for
vice-president for upstream exploration. “It work at Block 52. In a press release, the com-
will provide the drive for Petronas to continue pany said it had agreed to make its Starfix® pre-
exploring in Suriname, which is one of our focus cise positioning solution available for a period
basins in the Americas. We look forward to fur- of two years in order to “help ensure safe and
ther successful collaboration with our partner efficient transit, anchoring and drilling activities
ExxonMobil and further strengthen our rela- for the programme’s semi-submersible rig and
tionship with the government of the Republic support vessels.”
of Suriname, as a solutions partner, progressing Block 52 covers an area of 4,749 square km in
towards delivering clean and reliable energy to Suriname’s offshore zone. It lies in waters rang-
the market.” ing from 50 to 1,100 metres deep. Equity in the
Mike Cousins, senior vice-president of project is split 50:50 between Petronas Suriname
exploration and new ventures at ExxonMobil, E&P, the operator, and ExxonMobil Exploration
spoke similarly. “Our first discovery in Suriname and Production Suriname. ™

Week 50 17•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13