Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 34 2021

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(Presumably, this will be the Makarapan-1 well exploration wells in the world. The joint venture
at the Demerara block, which has been identi- has also exercised its option to drill a second
fied as the second target of the joint venture’s well offshore Guyana under similar terms and
current drilling campaign.) They indicated that conditions. I am pleased with this major oper-
they had not yet decided when to start drilling ational milestone for Frontera and CGX and
this second well but noted that the decision to appreciate the ongoing support of the Guyanese
exercise the option to use the Maersk Discoverer government, our employees and our other var-
would allow for continuity in the drilling pro- ious partners as we work together to maximise
gramme and consistency in staffing. benefits for all of our stakeholders.”
Gabriel de Alba, the chairman of Fron- Equity in the Corentyne project is split
tera’s board of directors and the co-chairman between CGX, with 66.67%, and Frontera, with
of CGX’s board of directors, hailed the start of 33.33%. The partners had hoped to begin drill-
drilling work at the Kawa-1 site. “Today is an ing in early 2020, just a few months after PGS
important day for Frontera and CGX as we con- Geophysical (Norway) finished a 582-square
tinue to make substantial progress in realising km 3D seismic survey of the northern part of
the value of our investments in Guyana,” he said. the block in November 2019. However, the con-
“The joint venture has [spudded] the Kawa-1 tractor did not finish processing the new data
well, which we believe is one of the most exciting until June 2020. ™

Drilling activity in Guyana-Suriname

basin to remain high for next two years

Guyana and neighbouring Suriname are expect-
ing exploration drilling to remain at a high level
over the next two years, following a recent string
of major finds in the basin that straddles the two
countries’ offshore zones, local officials and
company representatives have said.
The two South American countries, along
with Brazil, attracted the largest crowds to ses-
sions at the Offshore Technology Conference
held in Houston last week, according to a Reu-
ters report. Government officials and company
executives who attended the event said they
expected oil majors to continue to take an inter-
est in the Guyana-Suriname basin.
“I do hope that in 2022 we will have a major Guyana-Suriname offshore basin (Image: Staatsolie)
discovery in the Kanuku block because that will
be to the benefit of Guyana too,” said the coun- company (NOC) Staatsolie, Paramaribo expects
try’s Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bhar- to complete negotiations with TOQA, the joint
rat. He also noted that CGX Energy, a Canadian venture formed by TotalEnergies and Qatar
independent, was gearing up to drill at the Cor- Petroleum, before the end of this quarter.
entyne block. TOQA and Chevron (US) won three shal-
Meanwhile, Reuters quoted an executive low-water blocks (Block 5, Block 6 and Block 8)
from the Spanish oil major Repsol as saying that in June.
his company intended to drill offshore wells in Brunings noted that five more shallow-water
the region next year, even though it has previ- blocks were still available and said that Staatsolie
ously had disappointing results there. Likewise, was working to determine what steps to take
Jean-Michel Lavergne, who leads the Americas next. The NOC hopes to operate in future part-
exploration and production unit at France’s nerships, he added.
TotalEnergies, said that the firm anticipates “We have engaged all the companies involved
beginning drilling another exploration well in in the [shallow-water] bid round to see if there
the Guyana-Suriname basin this year. is further interest [in] the remaining blocks,” he
TotalEnergies and its partner, Qatar Petro- was quoted as saying by Reuters.
leum, are among the winners of Suriname’s The Guyana-Suriname basin has become
recently concluded shallow-water bidding a hotspot since 2015, when ExxonMobil (US)
round. According to Patrick Brunings, the announced that it had struck oil at Liza, a section
exploration manager of Suriname’s national oil of the Stabroek block offshore Guyana.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 26•August•2021