MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Two more oil strikes off the coast of Guyana at the prolific Stabroek Block

Tilapia-1 encountered approximately 93 m of high quality oil bearing sandstone reservoir and was drilled to a depth of 5,726 m in 1,783 m of water

Hess Corporation has announced positive results from the Tilapia-1 and Haimara-1 wells offshore Guyana, bringing the total number of discoveries on the Stabroek Block to 12.“These two discoveries demonstrate the continuing exploration potential on the prolific Stabroek Block and add to the previously announced gross discovered recoverable resource estimate of more than 5 Bboe,” said CEO John Hess.

Tilapia-1 encountered approximately 93 m of high quality oil bearing sandstone reservoir and was drilled to a depth of 5,726 m in 1,783 m of water. The well is located approximately 5.5 km west of the Longtail-1 well. In addition to Tilapia-1 the Turbot area includes the Turbot, Longtail and Pluma discoveries.

The Noble Tom Madden drillship began drilling the well on Jan. 7 and will next drill the Yellowtail-1 well, located approximately 10 km west of the Tilapia-1 well in the Turbot area. Baseline 4-D seismic data acquisition is underway.

The Haimara-1 well encountered approximately 63 m of high quality, gas condensate bearing sandstone reservoir. The well was drilled to a depth of 5,575 m in 1,399 m of water. It is located approximately 31 km east of the Pluma-1 well and is a potential new area for development.The Stena Carron drillship began drilling the well on Jan. 3 and will next return to the Longtail discovery to complete a well test.

The previous 10 discoveries on the Stabroek Block established the potential for at least five floating, production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels producing more than 750,000 bopd by 2025.

The Liza Phase 1 development is progressing on schedule and is expected to begin producing up to 120,000 bopd in early 2020, utilizing the Liza Destiny FPSO. Liza Phase 2, which will use a second FPSO designed to produce up to 220,000 bopd, is expected to startup by mid 2022. A third development, Payara, is expected to startup as early as 2023.

The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 km2). ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is operator and holds 45% interest in the Stabroek Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30% interest and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, holds 25% interest.