Tullow Oil and Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas started a 2550sq km seismic survey earlier this month on the Orinduik Block offshore the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.
The survey is being conducted by Schlumberger Guyana Inc. (Western Geco) using R/V GECO Eagle and two supporting vessels, and is expected to be completed within 50 days following which the results will be interpreted before an announcement is published.
The Orinduik Block is up dip and just a few kilometers from Exxon’s recent Liza and Payara discoveries confirming, by Exxon’s estimates between 2 and 2.5 billion bbl. Exxon hit oil at its Payara-2 appraisal well yesterday (25 July).
Eco Atlantic and Tullow have completed the first phase of exploration including evaluating all existing and regional 2D data. Following the results of this study and the ongoing regional success, both parties have agreed to accelerate and significantly increase the originally proposed 1000sq km 3D survey commitment on the block to circa 2550sq km, thus covering the entire block area, fully overlapping current prospective 2D leads and downdip trends.
As part of its agreement with Tullow, Tullow will carry the Eco Atlantic’s share of the originally proposed 1000sq km of the survey, at a cap of US$1.25 million, with the balance of the program being funded by both parties on a pro-rata basis.
“As previously announced and planned, we are excited to commence this significant 3D survey, which is substantially greater than the committed survey. In addition to further defining and de-risking the existing leads, the survey will hopefully better define potential drilling targets and determine the scale of the resource on the Orinduik Block. We look forward to processing the data and beginning to understand results in the fourth quarter of this year,” says Colin Kinley, chief operating officer and co-founder of Eco Atlantic.
Tullow is the operator of Orinduik with 60% stake. Eco holds the remaining 40%.