Page 5 - LatAmOil Week 17 2021

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

Greg Hill, the company’s COO, said during a we’re doing and the drill stem test, that’s going to
first-quarter earnings call with investors on give us very valuable information to assess mov-
April 28 that Uaru appeared to be a very large ing the greater Yellowtail area up in [the] queue
field. “I think the most significant part about to potentially be the fourth FPSO,” he predicted.
Uaru was that it was [11 km] from Uaru-1, ExxonMobil Guyana said last month that
which demonstrates a very large areal extent for it intended to submit a development plan for
the Uaru reservoir itself,” he said. fourth-stage work at Stabroek to officials in
John Hess, the CEO of the company, made a Georgetown before the end of this year. As of
similar statement. The relatively short distance press time, there were no indications that it
between Uaru-1 and Uaru-2 means that the field intended to push back this deadline. Instead,
may demonstrate the “large aerial extent of a there has been talk about selecting fifth- and
highly prolific quality reservoir,” he commented sixth-stage development sites.
during the earnings call.
Drilling
Development Some of that talk came from Hill, who men-
Meanwhile, ExxonMobil Guyana has decided tioned during Hess’ earnings call earlier this
what section of Stabroek it will target in the week that his company and its partners were
fourth phase of development. moving ahead with drilling work at other sec- ExxonMobil
The company has been in first-phase produc- tions of the Stabroek block.
tion since December 2019, when it brought the He explained: “The Stena DrillMAX is cur- has identified
Liza-1 field on stream. It has already announced rently appraising the Longtail discovery, and
plans to begin second-phase work at Liza-2 in additional appraisal [is] planned at Mako and in Yellowtail as its
2022 and is slated to launch third-stage opera- the Turbot area, which will help to find our fifth
tions at Payara in 2024. Until this week, though, and sixth developments on the block. The Stena next target for
it had not made an official decision as to what Carron has commenced exploration drilling development
part of the block would support fourth-stage at the Koebi-1 well, and an exploration well at
development. Whiptail is planned to spud in May.”
The wait is now over. In its April 27 statement, The Hess COO did not say which of these
ExxonMobil identified Yellowtail as its next tar- sites was the most promising. But he did report
get. “A fourth project, Yellowtail, has been iden- that the drilling initiatives would involve the use
tified within the block, with anticipated start-up of drillships to sink exploration and appraisal
in late 2025, pending government approvals and shafts. The new wells will target Campani-
project sanctioning,” the company said. “This an-level reservoirs similar to those found at
project will develop the Yellowtail and Redtail Liza-1 and -2, as well as deeper Santonian-level
fields, which are located about 19 miles (30 km) reservoirs, he said.
south-east of the Liza developments.” Drilling will continue in the second half of
The US major had previously indicated that 2021, he added. ExxonMobil, Hess and China
fourth-stage operations would focus on the National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) will sink
Hammerhead section of Stabroek. However, it around 12 new wells in total in 2021, he said.
changed course last year, after identifying two
additional reservoirs of high-quality crude oil in Downtime and disease
the Yellowtail-2 appraisal well. These are all positive events, but they did not
The choice of Yellowtail will not come as a occur in a vacuum.
surprise to Hess. The US independent’s CEO said On the one hand, even if ExxonMobil Guy-
during an industry conference last September ana and its partners did make a new discovery
that this field would edge out Hammerhead for that might eventually bring Guyanese oil pro-
the fourth-stage spot. “What I’d like to say is that duction up to 1mn bpd or more, they are also
this greater Yellowtail area is showing that it’s a still struggling to fix a faulty gas compression
very significant oil accumulation of high-quality system on the Liza Destiny, the FPSO that has
oil, like Liza, and ... with this appraisal work that been anchored at Liza-1. ™

ExxonMobil is using the Liza Destiny FPSO to develop Liza-1 (Photo: SBM Offshore)

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