Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud says Repsol’s exploratory drilling operation at the Jaguar –1 well will reach its target soon and only then would the company know whether or not the well is viable and whether recoveries can be made.
Persaud was reluctant to reveal more, directing this newspaper to speak to the company directly.
Drilling at the Jaguar – 1 well will go to a depth of 6,500 metres to test the Turonian geologic zone. On February 9, 2012, drilling commenced on the site with an expected duration of 180 days.
The parties to the prospecting licence are Repsol Exploracion SA (15%), with Repsol being the operator, along with YPF Guyana Limited (30%), Tullow Guyana BV (30%) and CGX Resources Inc (25%).
Three weeks ago, CGX reported that its Eagle–1 well turned up dry, after about two months of drilling. CGX said it is moving on to other locations in its hunt for oil after drilling.
The company said it has to raise an additional US$20 million to finance the added drilling days spent at that site.
Interest in the Guyana/Suriname basin amplified after explorer Tullow struck oil last year off of French Guiana, raising the prospects of the opening of a major offshore oil producing province in South America.
Tullow’s geological theory is not without precedent. In the past decade, fields with tens of billions of barrels of oil have been found offshore Brazil in reservoirs that were formed when the two continents were attached, Reuters has reported.
CGX has been attempting to drill offshore the Corentyne since June, 2000 when its contracted rig was chased out of the area by Surinamese gunboats. Protracted negotiations between Guyana and Suriname failed to yield agreement and there was no progress until Guyana took its case to the Law of the Sea Tribunal in Hamburg, Germany and won.
