Guyana: Tullow Makes First Oil Discovery On Orinduik License Offshore

Tullow Oil has made an oil discovery at its Jethro-1 exploration well, drilled on the Orinduik license offshore Guyana.

The Jethro-1 was spud in early July, using the Stena Forth drillship. It was drilled to a Total Depth of 4,400 meters in approximately 1,350 meters of water.

Tullow said on Monday that evaluation of logging data confirms that Jethro-1 is the first discovery on the Orinduik license and comprises high quality oil bearing sandstone reservoirs of Lower Tertiary age.

The well encountered 55m of net oil pay which supports a recoverable oil resource estimate which exceeds Tullow’s pre-drill forecast. Tullow will now evaluate the data from the Jethro discovery and determine appropriate appraisal activity.

According to Tullow, this discovery significantly de-risks other Tertiary age prospects on the Orinduik license, including the shallower Upper Tertiary Joe prospect which will start drilling later this month following the conclusion of operations at the Jethro-1 well.

The non-operated Carapa 1 well will be drilled, later this year, on the adjacent Kanuku license to test the Cretaceous oil play.

Tullow is the operator of the Orinduik block with a 60% stake. Total holds 25% with the remaining 15% being held by Eco(Atlantic) Guyana Inc.

Commenting on the discovery, Chief Executive Office of Tullow Oil, Paul McDade said: “This substantial and high value oil discovery in Guyana is an outcome of the significant technical and commercial focus which has underpinned the reset of our exploration portfolio. It is an excellent start to our drilling campaign in the highly prolific Guyana oil province. We look forward to drilling both the Joe and Carapa prospects in our 2019 drilling campaign and the material follow-up exploration potential in both the Orinduik and Kanuku licenses.”

In a separate statement on Monday Eco Atlantic said that Jethro-1 is a significant oil discovery.

Colin Kinley, COO and Co-Founder of Eco Atlantic, said:  “Jethro is a fantastic find for us. This discovery was made due to our team at Eco and Kinley Exploration stepping out beyond the conventional exploration plays and seeking new resources through old-fashioned exploration science.

“The Jethro-1 well confirms the continuance of the petroleum system onto the Orinduik Block, up dip from the prolific discoveries on the Exxon-operated Stabroek Block. The well has resulted in a mitigation of risk of the presence of quality reservoir sands, seal and trap parameters. We have multiple drilling targets on the block with similar geophysical characteristics and we are moving the Stena Forth drillship immediately to its next target, Joe-1. The Joe-1 location is just a short move to a shallower target, and is expected to spud mid-August.

“The Orinduik Block, and the corner of the block where Jethro is located, were selected and pinned for drilling long before the first Exxon discovery.”

Gil Holzman, CEO and Co-Founder of Eco Atlantic stated: “This is a transformational event for the Company, and we now need to strategically plan for an even brighter future.  With multiple targets to consider, and Joe as the next prospect to be drilled, we will now pursue our evaluation of the timing for wells to develop the Jethro field and to expediently bring it on production. We are funded for at least six additional wells.