Page 5 - LatAmOil Week 05 2022

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

And at Canje, it struck out three times in a northern section of their licence area. In the
row, making no discoveries at Bulletwood-1, statement, they reported that they were set to
Jabillo-1 or Sapote-1. spud their second exploration well, in line with
the requirements of their contract, at a nearby
Announcement on Kawa-1 site in the second half of 2022. This site, known
That changed on February 1, when Frontera as Wei-1, will “target Campanian and Santo-
Energy and CGX Energy, the Canadian compa- nian-aged stacked channels in the western fan
nies that have teamed up to explore the Coren- complex in the northern section of the Coren-
tyne block, reported a find at Kawa-1. tyne block.” They also said they would use the
In a statement, the companies said that the Maersk Discoverer semi-submersible rig, the CGX and Frontera
wildcat exploration well had “encountered same unit that drilled Kawa-1, to sink Wei-1.
approximately 177 feet (54 metres) of hydrocar- may start looking
bon-bearing reservoirs within Maastrichtian, New partner needed? for another
Campanian and Santonian horizons, based As of press time, neither CGX nor Frontera
on initial evaluation of logging while drilling had spoken publicly about what might hap- partner at
(LWD) data.” They noted that the well had been pen after Wei-1 is complete. However, Andres
drilled in the northern section of the block, not Armijos, the head of Latin America research at Corentyne further
far from sections of two areas where commer- Houston-based Welligence Energy Analytics,
cial oil reserves have been discovered – namely, believes that the Canadian companies may start down the road
the eastern end of the Stabroek block and the looking for another partner further down the
western central section of Block 58 offshore road, assuming that the results of their drilling
Suriname. programme remain positive.
According to the statement, many of the “It’s too early to make a definitive judgement,
hydrocarbon shows encountered at Kawa-1 but given that Kawa lies within a prolific fairway
“are similar in age and can be correlated using of discoveries, the early signs are good,” he told
regional seismic data” with the finds at Stabroek NewsBase. “However, CGX and Frontera will
and Block 58. However, some demonstrate want to prove up more resource before making
the presence of hydrocarbon-bearing sands at any development decisions. We also think it
greater depths, including Coniacian horizons or likely they’ll try to bring on a partner prior to any
even older, and thus have the potential to open development. Doing so enables them to a) real-
up new opportunities. ise some early value from the block, b) reduce
Frontera drilled Kawa-1 to a depth of 6,578 future capital commitments and c) potentially
metres after spudding the well in 355-metre- bring in a company with experience developing
deep water on August 22, 2021. It had been offshore projects.”
targeting the “easternmost Campanian and San- Armijos did not identify any potential part-
tonian channel/lobe complex on the northern ners, but he said that CGX and Frontera might
section of the Corentyne block,” the statement be able to launch production at Corentyne rel-
noted. atively quickly. “Given the water depths, we’d
anticipate full-scale production starting in four
Excitement and assessment to five years after commerciality is established,”
So far, CGX and Frontera have not yet specu- he commented.”
lated publicly about the size of their discovery. Additionally, he said that the success at
However, they have expressed excitement about Kawa-1 had the potential to attract more IOCs
this development. to Guyana’s next licensing round, which is
Gabriel de Alba, the chairman of Frontera’s scheduled to kick off later this year. “Yes, it is
board of directors and co-chairman of CGX’s likely to increase interest in the round,” he told
board of directors, called the find a “potentially NewsBase. ™
transformational opportunity” and waxed
enthusiastic about “the growing success story
unfolding in offshore Guyana.” (Frontera and
CGX are deeply intertwined. The former com-
pany is the majority shareholder in the latter,
while equity in the Corentyne project is split
66.67% to the latter and 33.33% to the former.)
Frontera and CGX went on to say that they
were working to confirm the net pay and fluid
properties of hydrocarbon reserves in the shal-
low and deep layers of Kawa-1 with electric
wireline logging and fluid sampling and would
reveal the results of the drilling programme “as
soon as practicable.” Additionally, they indicated
that they expected to wrap up drilling by the end
of this month and would be able to finalise their
estimate for the cost of the well once they had
reached this milestone.
In the meantime, the companies appear set
on making a more thorough assessment of the CGX and Frontera sank Kawa-1 with the Maersk Discoverer (Photo: Maersk Drilling)

Week 05 03•February•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P5