Fugro will conduct survey services at a deepwater field development offshore Guyana for ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana, the geophysical service company announced on 22 December.
The contract provides for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) geophysical survey and an environmental baseline survey, along with shallow geohazard and geotechnical coring.
Fugro will acquire, process and analyze high quality AUV multibeam bathymetry, side scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler data, as well as environmental and geological/geotechnical samples, providing seabed and shallow sub-seabed information to support the initial development of offshore structures in the field. The survey will cover an area of approximately 640sq km in depths reaching 2800m.
Melissa Jeansonne, Vice President, Fugro added, “Fugro has executed numerous high profile, large scale, and remarkably successful geophysical and geotechnical programs throughout the globe, including many of the largest surveys in the oil and gas industry, and we look forward to continuing this model of excellence in the Guyana-Suriname basin.”
In May, Exxon confirmed a significant oil discovery on the Stabroek Block found 120mi offshore Guyana. Spud in early March, the Liza exploration well encountered more than 295ft (90m) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. It was drilled to 17,825ft (5433m) in 5719ft (1743m) of water. Stabroek Block includes 6.6 million acres (26,800sq km).
And Liza is already reportedly on Exxon's fast-track. The could-be play opener is already in pre-front-end engineering design (FEED), according to analyst firm GlobalData.
In December, Andrew Latham, vice president of exploration research at Wood Mackenzie told OE's Elaine Maslin that Liza could be bigger than expected. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be significantly bigger than 250 MMboe,” Latham said. Guyana’s own minister of governance has in fact suggested the field could contain 700 MMbbl reserves.
GlobalData's Matthew Jurecky said in October that Liza’s commercial success could redefine the Equatorial basin as a global deepwater production player.
Read more
Bumper crop [OE December 2015]
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