Guyana and Namibia focused oil and gas company Eco Atlantic has said that its board and management have agreed to voluntary pay cuts of up to 40 percent, in the wake of the situation with the coronavirus and the low oil prices.
The company has said it has undertaken a strict cost-cutting program across all aspects of the business, aside from the necessary maintenance of certain operations.
"These include termination of non-core services and cessation of business-related travel. In addition, the Board and management are voluntarily taking pay cuts of up to 40% starting in April 2020 and this will be kept under review on a monthly basis thereafter," Eco Atlantic said.
Eco has also said it has so far met all of its work commitments for 2020 under the various petroleum agreements offshore Guyana and Namibia, with "only minimal costs" expected to be incurred over the remainder of the year.
As at 31 March 2020, the company had cash and cash equivalents of CAD$26.5 million (US$18.8 million) and zero debt.
Eco is a partner in the Tullow-operated Orinduik block offshore Guyana, where two heavy oil discoveries (Joe and Jethro) were made in 2019.
In a statement on Wednesday, Eco said: "Eco remains fully funded for its share of further appraisal and exploration drilling at Orinduik block offshore Guyana, up to US$120 million (gross)," Eco said, adding it expects to be in a "robust position to progress its exploration strategy when market conditions improve and operations are able to resume."
Related: Guyana: Orinduik Block in Resource Estimate Boost
Eco had previously hoped to keep on drilling in the Orinduik block off Guyana in 2020 to further test the discoveries made, however, Tullow late last year said it might not drill in the country in 2020.
Eco last month said that a final decision on further drilling would be made "in the coming months," but it also said that the need to integrate the new data acquired from recent discoveries in the region into its understanding of the Orinduik block's geology might result in further drilling and appraisal activity taking place in H1 2021.
The Orinduik Block could hold 5,1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in Gross Prospective Resources, best estimate, according to a report by Gustavson Associates, an independent third-party auditor, released in February.
This is more than a billion-barrel increase previous estimate of Gross Prospective Resources of 3,981 MMBOE in March 2019, for the 1800km2 block sitting 170 km offshore Guyana in the Suriname Guyana basin.
Related: Tullow: No Guyana Drilling in 2020
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