’Significant’ new oil discovery follows Exxon’s strike in 2022; CGX and Frontera hope to find more commercial prospects offshore Guyana
Energy company Hess has reported a significant oil discovery offshore Guyana. The New York Stock Exchange-listed, US-headquartered company reported the find in its Q4 results 25 January, saying it could result in development in the future.
"The Fangtooth SE-1 well encountered approximately 61 m of oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. Fangtooth adds to the block’s gross discovered recoverable resource estimate of more than 11Bn barrels of oil equivalent," Hess said.
The new Fangtooth SE-1 well is located approximately 13 km southeast of the original Fangtooth-1 discovery. Drill rig Stena Carron drilled Fangtooth SE-1 in 1,645 m of water. Further appraisal activities are underway, according to Hess, which also reported its development plan for Uaru, the fifth development on the Stabroek Block, had been submitted to the Government of Guyana for approval in Q4. The project is expected to have a capacity of approximately 250,000 barrels of oil per day, with first oil anticipated at the end of 2026.
Canadian firm CGX Energy announced the spud of the Wei-1 well on the Corentyne block offshore Guyana. CGX and its joint venture partner Frontera Energy Corp began drilling the well, located about 200 km offshore from Georgetown, following the approval of an appraisal plan submitted to the Government of Guyana.
After completing drilling operations and analysing the results, the partners said they may consider future wells to the appraisal programme to evaluate development feasibility in the Kawa-1 discovery area and throughout the northern section of the Corentyne block.
CGX said, “Any future drilling is contingent on positive results at Wei-1,” adding the joint venture has “no further drilling obligations beyond the Wei-1 well.”
Wei-1 is located approximately 14 km northwest of the previously Kawa-1 light oil and condensate discovery and will be drilled in water depth of approximately 583 m to an anticipated total depth of 6,248 m targeting the Maastrichtian, Campanian and Santonian aged stacked sands within channel and fan complexes in the northern section of the Corentyne block.
India’s state run ONGC plans partner with TotalEnergies for exploration and production of oil and gas in the Andaman islands, according to ONGC director, exploration, Sushma Rawat. The projects in the Andamans are mostly deepwater. Prospective hydrocarbon blocks are expected to be auctioned at the next round of auctions under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme, for which both companies may bid as a joint venture.
Indian financial paper Mint quoted Ms Rawat saying the Indian Government has “an island exploration project; a lot of seismic data is being acquired in the Andamans which will be processed and analysed. Within a month we will know whether Total would be coming there with us and in what way. With Total we still have to sign an MoU. The talks are in the final stages," she added.
In contracts news, TotalEnergies will drill the Benriach well in the Laggan Tormore area, west of Shetland, UK, later this year. TotalEnergies’ partner, Kistos, which holds a 25% interest in the well, updated the market last week stating that drilling is set to commence Q2 2023. The joint venture has signed a contract for a rig to carry out well drilling. The well is targeting recoverable resource of 638Bn cubic feet. Kistos acquired a 20% stake in the Greater Laggan Area in July 2022.
Two major subsea contracts have been awarded to firms working offshore Brazil.
TechnipFMC has been awarded a ’substantial’ master services agreement (MSA) for subsea services with Petrobras. The three-year contract has an option to extend for a further two years, and is worth between US$250-500M, according to TechnipFMC.
TechnipFMC will provide life-of-field services to support its installed base offshore Brazil. The contract covers installation, intervention and maintenance of both equipment and tooling, as well as technical support for subsea umblicals, risers and flowlines. The agreement succeeds a previous MSA and supports Petrobras’s increased volume of operations. Services will be supplied from TechnipFMC’s base in Macaé, Brazil.
Saipem has landed two offshore contracts worth approximately US$900M: The first, with Aker Solutions do Brasil, was awarded by Total Energies for the LAPA Southwest Development Project, a deepwater oil field in the Santos Basin in the South Atlantic, 270 km off the coast Sao Paulo. Work will ecompass the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of subsea umbilicals, risers, flowlines and a subsea production system.
Equinor awarded the other contract for the Irpa Pipeline project in the deep waters of the Norwegian Sea. The project consists of the installation of a 80-km swagged pipe-in-pipe pipeline connecting the subsea production template of Irpa field to the existing Aasta Hansteen platform. The offshore operations are planned to take place in 2025 and will be performed by Saipem’s pipe-laying vessel Castorone.
Borr Drilling’s jack-up Ran received a letter of award from an undisclosed customer for work in Latin America. This award covers a two-well campaign with an estimated duration of 200 days on a dryhole case and up to 460 days on a success case with work commencing in October 2023 and an estimated contract value of US$30.4M on a dryhole case.
Ran is currently contracted with Wintershall in Mexico and will remain there until Q2 this year.
Borr said it is in discussions with other customers in the region for further work to cover the available time between these two programmes.
Noble Corp expects to bring in between US$140M and US$150M in its Q4 2022 results, revising its earlier estmate of between US$155~US$175M. The reduction is primarily related to mechanical issues on Noble Regina Allen.
The rig has been safely demobilised to a port in Trinidad with repair plans under development. The rig has been off dayrate since mid-December and its contract has been terminated due to extended downtime.
A number of Noble’s drillships have secured new awards. Gerry de Souza is expected to commence a nine-month contract in Nigeria with an undisclosed operator, and with unpriced options, extending into Q3 2024.
The drillship Noble Stanley Lafosse received a commitment from an undisclosed operator for a six-well work programme in the US Gulf of Mexico. The US$148M contract begins in June 2023 and is expected to keep the rig employed until mid-2024. This contract also includes five, one-well operations options at mutually agreed dayrates.
Noble Faye Kozak has been awarded a one-well contract with Kosmos in the US Gulf of Mexico with a minimum duration of 50 days at a dayrate of US$450,000. This contract is scheduled to commence in Q2 or Q3 2023 in direct continuation of the rig’s current work. Additionally, QuarterNorth Energy has exercised one option well, with one option well remaining.
Noble Globetrotter I will begin work with Petronas in Mexico in late January, later than previously anticipated due to permitting delays. Additionally, the rig has been awarded a new contract with an undisclosed operator for 70 days of plug and abandonment work in the US Gulf of Mexico, which is planned to commence July 2023.
The Noble Resolve jack-up has departed Port Esbjerg to begin working on a major carbon capture storage project in the Danish North Sea. Project Greensand is supported by the Danish Government and will support a CCUS value chain over the next decade. The rig is expected to move to the Nini West field to kick off the Greensand pilot test.
Noble Resolve is performing the Greensand pilot test on a contract entered with INEOS which started upon arrival in Esbjerg and will last up to 135 days. The actual CO2 injection test is expected to last roughly three months according to Noble Corp.
Offshore construction company Havfram Subsea is changing its company name back to Ocean Installer. Founded in 2011 under that name, the company rebranded in 2020 to Havfram Subsea to reflect its move into the offshore wind segment. But last November, Havfram sold its wind business to private investment firm Sandbrook Capital while the subsea business remained with investor HitecVision.
Finally, Seadrill has announced the appointment of former Maersk Drilling and Transocean director Ana Zambelli as a new board director.
"Ms Zambelli brings significant industry experience to the company, with more than 20 years’ experience in the energy services sector in operational, commercial and finance roles. Ms Zambelli served as chief commercial officer at Maersk Drilling, managing director at Transocean, and president of the Brazilian division of Schlumberger. Last, she served as a managing director in Brookfield’s Private Equity Group, responsible for business operations in Brazil, where she also provided operational and financial oversight for Brookfield portfolio companies. Ms Zambelli previously served as an independent member of the board of directors of Petrobras and Braskem, and was the founder and leader of the Diversity Committee at the Brazilian Petroleum Institute (IBP) from 2018 to present," Seadrill said.
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