Oil and gas company Tullow Oil is set to start drilling at its Goliathberg Voltzberg North-1 (GVN-1) exploration well, offshore Suriname, targeting 235 million barrels of oil. The news of the drilling operation startup was shared by Tullow's partner Ratio Petroleum.
"Ratio Petroleum is reporting that Tullow, the operator of Block 47, has commenced the Goliathberg Voltzberg North-1 (GVN-1) exploration well, offshore Suriname," Ratio said.
Ratio Petroleum said that the GVN-1 well, drilled by Stena Forth drillship contained Best Estimate prospective resources of 235 million barrels of oil with a 34% geological chance of success.
In an email to Offshore Engineer, Ratio clarified that the Stena Forth has arrived to the drilling location off Suriname "and started working," but that the actual spudding of the well is expected "in the next few days."
Five discoveries have been announced in Suriname since the start of 2020, and more than 10 billion BOE have been discovered in the prolific Guyana-Suriname Basin - most of it by ExxonMobil in Guyana - since 2015.
"This is the second exploration drilling for Ratio Petroleum in the Basin following Tanager-1 (Guyana), which was lately declared as a discovery. An update CPR for the Tanager discovery as well as for the additional prospects in Kaieteur Block is due to be published in mid-February," Ratio Petroleum said. Worth noting, while Tanager - the deepest well in the region drilled to date - was recently declared a discovery, it was also labeled a non-commercial one.
The well sits in a water depth of 1,900 meters and will be drilled to a total depth of 5,400 meters. Preliminary results from the drilling are expected within 70 days.
Block 47, which spans 2,350 square kilometers at sea depths ranging between 1,300-3,000 meters, and is estimated by NSAI to contain 927 million barrels of oil in three different prospects (including the GVN-1 prospect).
Tullow holds a 50% share of the rights in the block, Pluspetrol holds 30% and Ratio Petroleum holds 20%.