Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 50 2021

LatAmOil GUYANA LatAmOil

Frontera indicated that it did not expect to com- east of Corentyne, and to potential deep-lying
plete drilling by the end of December, as previ- discoveries in Guyana’s offshore Stabroek block,
ously forecast. the eastern end of which is directly north of
In its statement, it noted that work on Kawa-1 Corentyne.
had taken longer than anticipated and said that CGX and Frontera had originally hoped to
the cost of drilling the well was now set to rise begin drilling Kawa-1 in early 2020, just a few
to $115-125mn as a result. It reported that the months after PGS Geophysical (Norway) fin-
partners might have to seek additional financing ished a 3D seismic survey over a 582-square
and was exploring several opportunities but did km section of the northern part of Corentyne in
not elaborate. November 2019. However, PGS did not finish
Kawa-1 is being drilled at a site that is around processing the new data until June 2020.
200 km from the shore and in 355-metre-deep Equity in the Corentyne project is divided
water. CGX and Frontera hope the well’s tar- between CGX, with 66.67%, and Frontera, with
get layers will be analogous to the finds made the remaining 33.33%. Frontera is CGX’s major-
at Block 58 offshore Suriname, located directly ity shareholder. ™

ExxonMobil gets green light for CCS

study at oilfields offshore Guyana

GUYANA’S government has given ExxonMobil to gas flaring and increased emissions at
(US) a green light to move forward with a study Stabroek, the deepwater block that is Exxon-
of carbon capture and storage (CCS) at its off- Mobil’s largest asset offshore Guyana. The US
shore oilfields in the Guyana-Suriname basin. giant has had to burn off more associated gas
According to press reports, Vice-President than anticipated, owing to technical glitches
Bharrat Jagdeo announced on December 9 that with the flash gas compressor (FGC) unit on the
Georgetown had authorised the study. “[We] Liza Destiny floating production, storage and
have given [the US super-major] permission to off-loading (FPSO) vessel it has installed at Liza-
do a study on carbon capture and storage,” he 1, the first producing section of the licence area.
was quoted as saying by Argus Media. These problems have now been addressed, but
Jagdeo did not reveal the parameters of the the extra flaring has drawn criticism in Guyana.
study or say when work might begin. He was As of press time, ExxonMobil had not con-
speaking shortly after Guyana’s junior Public firmed Jagdeo’s statement on the CCS study.
Works Minister Deodat Indar said at an indus- However, Alistair Routledge, the president of the
try conference in Houston that CCS would play US major’s local subsidiary ExxonMobil Guy-
an integral role in Guyana’s approach to climate ana, told members of a Guyanese business group
change mitigation. last week that decarbonisation and reduction of
Indar had also said that carbon capture global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were
would constitute part of the country’s response high priorities for the company.

CCS will constitute part of Guyana’s response to excess gas flaring at the Stabroek block (Image: ExxonMobil)

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 16•December•2021