Guyana’s 11th and 12th oil finds among four global ‘high impact’ discoveries this year

—Oil Industry News

Guyana’s eleventh and twelfth oil finds announced by ExxonMobil in January are listed among the four “high impact discoveries of oil and gas” realized globally so far this year in an article published in the internationally authoritative journal, Oil Industry News, on Thursday February 14.

Just over two weeks ago, on Wednes-day, February 6, Guyana’s Director of Energy, Dr. Mark Bynoe, announced that ExxonMobil had made the two separate discoveries offshore Guyana at the Tilapia-1 and Haimara-1 wells in the southwest section of the Stabroek Block. In the wake of the two most recent finds offshore Guyana, the Oil and Gas Industry News, in its February 14 article, described the Stabroek Licence under which ExonMobil is drilling as “the gift that keeps on giving.”

The Tilapia-1 is the fourth discovery in the Turbot area that includes Turbot, Longtail and Pluma discoveries. In the process of its most recent finds, the Tilapia-1 “encountered approximately 305 feet (93 metres) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir and was drilled to a depth of 18,786 feet (5,726 metres) in 5,850 feet (1,783 metres) of water.”

Department of Energy Head
Dr. Mark Bynoe

Meanwhile, oil industry reporting continues to wax warmly about Guyana’s oil prospects, with Oil Industry News asserting that “the Stabroek licence continues to deliver” whilst the report says that the Haimara and Tilapia discoveries have provided “the highest net pay yet seen (at Tilapia) and proven a substantial gas and condensate accumulation (at Haimara) to add to the prolific oil play. The gas-oil-ratio of the oil discoveries is believed to be ~20% and a planned DST at Longtail will provide critical information about any potential gas development scheme,” the report says.

The other two “high impact” discoveries listed in the February 14 Oil Industry News report are Glergorn in the North Sea in the United Kingdom and the Outeniqua Basin in South Africa.

These four finds, the Oil Industry News says, amount to “25% of the high-impact volume discovered globally in the whole of 2018.”

On the whole, Oil Industry News says that 2019 could be a “bumper year” for the sector.