French oil giant Total and its partner Apache said Thursday they'd made a new significant oil and gas discovery at the Keskesi East-1 well, in Block 58 off the coast of Suriname.
This follows previous offshore discoveries in the Block at Maka Central, Sapakara West and Kwaskwasi prospects.
Using the Noble Sam Croft drillship, the well was drilled by a water depth of about 725 meters and encountered a total of 63 meters net pay of hydrocarbons, comprised of 58 meters net black oil, volatile oil, and gas pay in good quality Campano-Maastrichtian reservoirs, along with 5 meters of net volatile oil pay in Santonian reservoirs, where wireline logging has just been performed.
Drilling is still ongoing for deeper Neocomian aged targets, Total said.
“We are delighted to announce this new discovery, which confirms this first exploration campaign as a full success and adds to the proven resource base” said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at Total. “We are also excited, as new operator of the block, to start the appraisal operations designed to characterize the 2020 discoveries, while in parallel start a second exploration campaign on this prolific block in 2021.”
“We are very pleased to announce our fourth consecutive discovery in Block 58 at Keskesi, which confirms oil in the eastern portion of the block,” said John Christmann, Apache’s chief executive officer, and president. “We are excited to commence the appraisal program on our initial discoveries and extend our Block 58 exploration program to the north in 2021.”
Total assumed operatorship of Block 58 on January 1st, 2021, with a 50% working interest. Apache will continue to operate the Keskesi exploration well until the release of the Noble Sam Croft drillship, upon completion of the operations at the well.
Upon release, the Noble Sam Croft will move to Guyana where it will drill for ExxonMobil.
Total, on the other hand, has recently signed an agreement to hire two Maersk Drilling's deepwater rigs, Mærsk Developer and Maersk Valiant, for an exploration and appraisal project in Suriname’s Block 58.
The campaign is expected to start in early 2021, with an estimated firm combined duration of 500 days. The estimated firm total contract value for Maersk Drilling is approximately $100 million, including rig upgrades and integrated services provided.