Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 43 2019

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Within about three months, he said, the site will be producing at its peak capacity of around 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil.
Equity in Stabroek is split 45% to operator ExxonMobil (US), 30% to Hess and 25% to China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC). The partners recently finished drilling Tripletail, their 14th well at the block, and have decided where to drill the next two wells, Hess’ chief operating officer Greg Hill said during the call. He identified those drilling sites as Uaru-1 and Mako-1 and said that the fourth drillship used by the group was due to arrive at Liza-1 before the end of November, in time to drill Mako-1.
“[The] drilling of Liza Phase 1 development wells ... is proceeding according to plan, and sub- sea installation is nearly complete,” Hill stated.
ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC hope that Stabroek will eventually yield as much as 750,000 bpd of oil They are developing the block in mul- tiple stages and have already approved plans for the second phase, which will be known as Liza- 2. This phase of work is due to start in mid-2022, and the partners will use the Liza Unity, a float- ing production, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel, to extract crude from Liza-2. The ship is capable of handling up to 220,000 bpd of oil.
Payara, the third stage of the project, will then achieve first oil in 2023. The group will use another FPSO to exploit this section, which will yield another 220,000 bpd of oil.
Tullow’s Orinduik plans
Hess and Hill informed investors about their
company’s production plans just a few days after investors in Orinduik, another block located off- shore Guyana, revealed that they were holding talks on the agenda and schedule for their next round of exploration work. The main issues under discussion are the assessment of this year’s oil finds at the Joe-1 and Jethro-1 drilling sites, the need for more research prior to the selection of drilling sites and estimating the cost of the wells that are under review for work in 2020, said non-operating partner Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas.
In a statement, Eco said it had already con- cluded its own evaluation of the Jethro-1 well. The evaluation confirmed that the sands at the site intersected, as previously predicted, it noted. Colin Kinley, the chief operating officer of the project’s operator Tullow Oil, described the site as “having the potential to be a stand-alone com- mercial discovery, having a clear seismic defini- tion and excellent reservoir.”
The company went on to say that it was also continuing to interpret data from the Joe-1 well. Thus far, the information available indicates that the site may hold more oil than previously antic- ipated, it said.
Additionally, it pointed to the possibility that other sections of Stabroek might prove geolog- ically similar to the areas where oil has been discovered. Jimmy, another prospect within the block, appears to be in the same type of charged sands as Jethro-1, it said.
Equity in the Orinduik block is divided as follows: 45% to operator Tullow Oil (UK/Ire- land), 30% to Hess and 25% to CNOOC.™
Brazil mulls invitation to join OPEC
BRAZIL
BRAZIL’Sriseasanoilproducerappearstohave caught the attention of Saudi Arabia. According to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Saudi offi- cials have invited the country to join OPEC.
Bolsonaro stressed that Brazil had not received a formal invitation to become a mem- ber of the cartel. Rather, he said, officials in Riyadh had extended an informal offer to him during meetings with senior Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Sal- man (MBS). He was speaking on the sidelines of an industry conference in the Saudi capital on October 30.
This invitation opens a path for Brazil to seek membership in OPEC, the president declared. “It is the first step for maybe putting in place this policy in Brazil,” he was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
He described himself as eager to accept Riyadh’s offer, saying: “Personally, I would really like to see Brazil become a member of OPEC.” But he also stressed that he would take time to discuss the invitation with his own economic advisors and with representatives of the Energy
Ministry. Brazil will make no formal requests to join the group until it accomplishes these tasks, he said.
If Brazil joins OPEC, it will be one of the larg-
est oil producers in the group – specifically, the
third largest, behind only Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Bolsonaro noted on October 30 that his country
had oil reserves larger than those of several cur-
rent OPEC members. 
Refinery in San Nicolas, Aruba (Photo: Koninkrijksrelaties.nu )
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Week 43 31•October•2019