Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 23 2022

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He continued: “This year, however, we drilled a equivalent (boe).
well called Fangtooth that was optimally located However, Schreiner Parker, vice president for
at 18,000 feet, and we found material oil depos- Latin America and the Caribbean at the Nor-
its that, in and of itself, could underpin another way-based consultancy Rystad Energy, told Oil-
FPSO. And it is very high-quality oil.” NOW.gy in an interview that Fangtooth might
Fangtooth is not the only part of the Stabroek contain around 230mn boe.
block where commercial crude resources can be Stabroek’s first development project, Liza-1,
found in the deeper horizons, he added. “Now began production in December 2019, and the
that we have correlated the wells that we are second project, Liza-2, followed suit in February
drilling for, not only at 15,000 but 18,000 feet, 2022. The third project, Payara, is due to come
we are starting to find other attractive deep pros- on stream in late 2023 and Yellowtail, the fourth,
pects. So there is a lot of potential in the deep in 2025. Uaru, the fifth, may start production in
for either tiebacks into the 15,000 feet and to an 2026. The block may yield at much as 1mn bar-
FPSO or to be a stand-alone project,” he said. “So rels per day (bpd) of oil by the end of the decade.
clearly, we are still in the early innings.” Equity in the Stabroek project is split between
Hess did not say how much oil might lie in ExxonMobil, with 45%; Hess, with 30%; and
the deeper layers of Stabroek, which is already China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC),
estimated to contain some 11bn barrels of oil with 25%. ™

VP: Guyana will reclaim Demerara

unless CGX drills exploration wells

GUYANA’S Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo moving ahead as planned, there [have] to be
has indicated that Georgetown is prepared to really good reasons for them to retain the areas,”
reclaim the licence for the Demerara offshore he remarked.
block if Canada’s CGX Energy fails to uphold its The vice president also alluded to CGX’s
exploration drilling commitments. recent decision to take out a $35mn loan from
Jagdeo told OilNOW.gy earlier this week that its parent company Frontera in order to cover
CGX Energy and Frontera Energy, its partner the costs of exploration drilling at Corentyne
and parent company, remained contractually and the construction of a deepwater port facility
obligated to drill two exploration wells at Dem- in Guyana. He indicated that Georgetown was
erara by February 2023. Guyana’s government not prepared to be patient if CGX needed more
acceded to the joint venture’s request for an time to arrange the financing needed to cover
extension of the deadline in 2020, he noted, the cost of exploration drilling at two offshore
but it does not plan to respond so favourably if blocks instead of one within the next year.
the companies ask to push the target date back It is simply “none of our business” if CGX
again. “can’t raise the money,” he declared.
CGX representatives have said that the Equity in both Demerara and Corentyne is
company does not intend to drill any wells at split 66.67% to CGX and 33.33% to Frontera,
Demerara this year, as it intends to concentrate which is also the majority shareholder is the for-
its efforts on another licence area offshore Guy- mer company. The Canadian firms have set up
ana – namely, Corentyne, where it has already joint ventures to explore the blocks. ™
discovered crude oil in the Kawa-1 exploration
well. The Canadian firm is slated to begin drill-
ing Wei-1, its second exploration well at Coren-
tyne, in the third quarter of 2022.
Jagdeo acknowledged CGX’s desire to focus
on Corentyne but said that the company had
been “nurtured” long enough. “Let me say to
CGX publicly that they have had a long period
here, and I’m very pleased that they have moved
forward,” he commented. “But if they don’t
meet their commitments, then there will be
consequences.”
Unless the joint venture partners can provide
solid evidence of extenuating circumstances, he
explained, they will have to relinquish the Dem-
erara licence to the government. “If they’re not The firms have licences for Demerara and Corentyne (Image: CGX)

Week 23 09•June•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11