CGX Resources Inc has awarded a contract to Fugro-Geo Team for a vessel to undertake four weeks of 3D marine seismic work commencing next month in the Guyana Basin as the hunt for oil continues.
This is according to a press release from the company yesterday. The contract value is estimated to be US$13M and it is to be executed on a 500 square kilometre parcel. The programme is being funded by CGX from existing working capital. The name of the vessel is R/V Geo Pacific.
“The 3D seismic will fulfil the minimum work commitment on our Corentyne Petroleum Prospecting Licence through its First Renewal Second Phase,” stated Warren Workman, Vice President of Exploration for CGX. The Programme has been designed to cover the four prospects for which the Gustavson Associates LLC of Boulder Colorado in a report dated January 3, 2008 calculated the total best estimate prospective resource to be 2.7 billion barrels of oil. The most significant leads are a series of structural traps in the Upper Cretaceous that we’ve called our Eagle Deep targets within our Corentyne PPL,” he said.
Workman said that these are all types of ‘plays’ that if successful will confirm the Guyana Suriname basin as being world class.
“We look forward to further refinement of our interpretation with 3D seismic, and testing of our concepts by drilling an exploration well,” Workman said.
President and CEO of CGX Energy Inc Kerry Sully had said earlier this year that the high price per barrel for oil was making the search for a seismic vessel difficult.
Sully had said in December that the shooting of 500 square kilometres of 3D seismic before drilling was a good idea since this would accurately pinpoint the opportunities for oil better than the 2D seismic – done around 1999 – could have.
In June 2000, a drilling rig leased by CGX from an American drilling contractor and operating under licence from the Government of Guyana was forced off its Eagle drilling location by Surinamese navy gunboats.
After several years of negotiation, Guyana took the matter to the Law of the Sea tribunal.
After the announcement of the tribunal award in September last year, Sully had said that the decision was “extremely positive for CGX”, as it concluded that 93 per cent of CGX’s Corentyne Licence and 100 per cent of its Georgetown Licence fell in the territory awarded to Guyana.
