Page 14 - AsianOil Week 48 2020

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and ExxonMobil are reported to be in talks over the global LNG sector then please click here for
a potential resource-sharing deal. NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor.
Last week, three sources familiar with the
matter told Reuters that the two companies LatAmOil: Guyana drilling plans
were in negotiations, with each reportedly seek- Offshore Guyana, two consortia are hoping to
ing to extract more gas from a shared field that launch new drilling programmes before the end
straddles their two developments and cut costs. of next year.
Total is already developing its Mozambique According to a statement from Canada’s Eco
LNG export terminal, which will use feedstock (Atlantic) Oil & Gas, shareholders in the Orin-
gas from Offshore Area 1. ExxonMobil, mean- duik block are currently reviewing several pros-
while, is still weighing whether to go ahead with pects that may contain light sweet crude oil in
Rovuma LNG, which would use feedstock gas order to “provide further definition to the Cre-
from neighbouring Offshore Area 4. Separately, taceous interpretation.” The company did not
ExxonMobil is also involved in the Eni-led Coral identify any of the prospects but said that the
South floating LNG (FLNG) project, under highest-graded target areas would be added to
development currently and using gas from Off- the drilling programme. “[We] hope to have tar-
shore Area 4. get selection in the next six months, allowing us
The field that straddles ExxonMobil and to begin drilling preparation in the second half of
Total’s project areas contains cheap and abun- 2021,” said Gil Holzman, Eco Atlantic’s president
dant gas resources. The volume each project and CEO.
could extract from the shared area was set out To date, Eco Atlantic and the other sharehold-
in a 2015 unitisation – or resource-sharing – ers in Orinduik have made two non-commercial
agreement, but according to the sources, both discoveries of heavy oil at Orinduik. Neverthe-
ExxonMobil and Total are now renegotiating less, Tullow Oil (UK/Ireland), the operator of the
that contract with each other. block, has remained optimistic about the group’s
The companies are reportedly seeking to chances of discovering light sweet crude.
cut costs wherever they can, in response to the Meanwhile, two other Canadian companies,
impact of COVID-19 and the worsening secu- CGX Energy and Frontera Energy, have secured
rity situation in northern Mozambique. The permission to push back their deadlines for
negotiations are reported to be particularly sig- drilling at the Corentyne block. In a statement,
nificant for ExxonMobil, as it has yet to make a Frontera said Guyana’s government had agreed
final investment decision (FID) on the Rovuma to wait for another 12 months – that is, until
project, which is estimated to cost $30bn. November 27, 2021 – for the drilling of the next
This comes as developers elsewhere in the well at Corentyne. It attributed the delay to the
world are backing away from resource-shar- coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and said
ing. Earlier in November, it was reported that a that the partners “remained committed through-
planned two-project development in Papua New out to completing its exploratory commitments
Guinea (PNG) might end up being altered so in full, despite operational activities in Guyana
that one new project goes ahead while an expan- being severely affected for much of 2020.”
sion of another – already operational – facility
could be scrapped. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor.

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 03•December•2020