Australia exploration company Karoon Energy has signed an agreement with the drilling contractor Stena Drilling and oil company Tullow Oil to contract the Stena Forth drillship for Karoon’s Marina-1 exploration well located offshore Peru.
"The Stena Forth has been contracted to drill one well, being the Marina-1 exploration well, in Karoon’s 40% owned and operated Block Z-38 in the Tumbes Basin in Peru with drilling scheduled to commence early in the 1st quarter 2020," said a press release from Karoon.
The Marina-1 well sits in water depth of approximately 350 metres and is targeting a gross prospective resource of 256 million barrels (102 million barrels net to Karoon).
In the case of success in Marina-1, there is potential for a de-risking of a list of additional prospects in the block totaling over a billion barrels of prospective resource on a gross basis.
The drillship assignment agreement provides Karoon with a single well slot from the existing rig contract between Tullow and Stena.
Managing Director, Robert Hosking said: “The contracting of the “Stena Forth” for the exploration of the Marina Prospect is an exciting opportunity for Karoon. Karoon has been working for some time to assess the prospectivity of the block, attract a farmout partner and prepare for drilling. The drilling of Marina-1 is a critical milestone for assessing the prospectivity of the deeper waters off northern Peru, and, on success, could de-risk several further exploration targets within Block Z-38, and Karoon’s 100% owned Area 73 Technical Evaluation Area, potentially providing important future production for Peru."
Hosking added: "The Stena Forth Drillship is a recently delivered harsh water drillship with capabilities to drill in far deeper water depths and much harsher sea states than those found in Northern Peru, Karoon is happy to have secured the use of such a high quality vessel for this well."
"The company takes its responsibility to the local people and environment very seriously and has very experienced operational people who are committed to the highest levels of operational safety drilling the Marina-1 well,” he said.