Tullow Oil has picked up six licenses offshore Peru, spanning 28,000sq km, the UK-based firm confirmed today (10 January).
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| Map of Peru blocks. Image from Tullow. |
Following negotiations with Perupetro, Tullow has agreed to acquire 100% stake in blocks Z-64, Z-65, Z-66, Z-67 & Z-68. The agreements are pending approval by Peru's governmental authorities (the Ministry of Energy and Mines, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance). A formal signing is expected by Q1 2018, Tullow said in today's trading and operational statement.
Tullow will also pick up 35% interest in the Z-38 licence through a farm-down from Karoon Gas Australia, also subject to government approval, the firm said.
"The new acreage will complement [our] South America position and contains a number of attractive leads and prospects," Tullow said in the announcement. "The Z-38 licence is already covered by high quality 3D seismic and includes the Marina prospect, which is a potential candidate for drilling in 2019."
Tullow will join other independent operators who have picked up acreage offshore Peru.
BPZ Energy brought the Corvina field, in block Z-1, online in 2010. OE profiled the field's buoyant tower solution in December 2013.
In October 2017, Anadarko Petroleum said it signed an exploration agreement with the government of Peru to explore 4.7 million acres across three deepwater blocks in the Trujillo Basin offshore Peru. Anadarko said it expects to invest approximately US$5 million to conduct evaluation activities primarily consisting of reprocessing existing seismic data and collecting piston cores from the sea floor to evaluate the potential.
However, it hasn't all been good news in Peru. In November, Baron Oil & Gas relinquished block Z-34 after frustrations due to a "lack of regulations relating to deepwater drilling" and other delays.
Elsewhere in South America, Tullow says processing of 3D seismic data shot offshore Guyana on the Kanuku and Orinduik licences last year is on going and should help pave the way to a drilling program beginning in 2019. However, Tullow is also considering moving drilling plans sooner into late 2018.
Tullow also announced that while drilling on the Araku-1 in neighboring Suriname, in block 54, was unsuccessful the well proved the presence of a new petroleum system in the Demerara plateau. A two-year extension was granted for the adjacent block 47 where the Goliathberg prospect is a potential drilling candidate for 2019, Tullow said.
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