Some very positive articles about the Exxon #oil discovery in #Guyana

Below are two very positive articles about the Exxon discovery in Guyana, future drilling commitments and potential production scenarios.

The most significant quote comes from Tudor Pickering (Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. is an integrated investment and merchant bank providing high quality advice and services to the energy industry. The company offers sales and trading, and research coverage on more than 170 issuers worldwide);

"ExxonMobil (45%), Hess (30%), CNOOC (25%) will begin a 4-well drilling campaign later this month on the Stabroek block.  It contains the Liza-1 oil discovery, the most important oil discovery of 2015 in our view (TPHe 500mmboe)."

Tudor Pickering:

Guyana exploration programme about to kick off: potential meaningful value creation opportunity (XOM)$76.23 – H; HES $43.62 - NR)– ExxonMobil (45%), Hess (30%), CNOOC (25%) will begin a 4-well drilling campaign later this month on the Stabroek block.  It contains the Liza-1 oil discovery, the most important oil discovery of 2015 in our view (TPHe 500mmboe).  Press reports have suggested the wells could deliver 10-20kbbl/d of high quality crude, with potential to fast-track 1^st oil in 2018 – we think that the break-even oil price required could be as low as $40/bbl.  We expect a focus on appraising Liza (3 wells) and drilling the independent Ranger exploration prospect, one of our 50ish Wells to Watch, to the north of the block.  More detail in TPH’s 50ish Wells to Watch publication and TPH Guyana model available on request.

Upstream Magazine;

ExxonMobil lines up rig for Liza work

Drilling campaign: ExxonMobil lines up drillship Stena Carron for Guyana work

Stena Drilling

By Noah Brenner 

 

 08 January 2016 16:38 GMT

ExxonMobil has contracted drillship Stena Carron for its drilling campaign off Guyana, where it hopes to appraise and expand its significant Liza oil discovery.

Stena Carron was stacked off the Canary Islands but is scheduled to set sail on 11 January, according to Upstream sources.

The rig is due on location off Guyana around 22 January to begin drilling the first of what is believed to be at least a four-well campaign that will both appraise the Liza discovery as well as test new exploration targets such as the Ranger prospect.

The terms of the contract were not disclosed but Stena said the drillship is booked through to the first quarter of 2017, indicating that ExxonMobil likely took a one-year contract for the rig.

The Stena Carron is a dynamically positioned drillship delivered in 2008 by Samsung Heavy Industries. It can drill to a total depth of more than 35,000 feet and features dual blowout preventors.

The rig had been chartered under a long-term contract by Statoil but the Norwegian giant ended the contract in November 2014 — two years early — and the rig has not worked since, according to information from Stena.

EnergyNow, a publication of the Energy Chamber of Trinidad & Tobago, first tippedExxonMobil's pick of the Stena Carron and the move was confirmed by Upstream sources.

The US giant has spent the last six months gathering additional data on its offshore Guyana acreage.

Seismic player CGG will wrap up a massive seismic acquisition effort that used a pair of vessels to shoot around 20,000 square kilometres of 3D.

Upstream understands that processing of the data was being done in lockstep with the acquisition and that the data would inform ExxonMobil's drilling campaign.

More recently, geophysical contractor Fugro confirmed that its multi-purpose research vessel Fugro Americas began work on the Stabroek block last month and plans to continue work on the block into March, where it will perform a geohazards assessment with an AUV unit.

ExxonMobil's aggressive exploration and appraisal schedule offshore Guyana is being driven by the supermajor's plans to fast-track commercial development of Liza.

Liza was ExxonMobil's first well on its huge Stabroek block, where it is joined by partners Hess on 30% and China National Offshore Oil Corporation-owned Nexen on 25%.

The original Liza wildcat hit more than 295 feet of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs and while the partners have not released official estimates of oil in place, they characterised the find as "significant".

In October, Upstream revealed in an exclusive storythat ExxonMobil was sounding out contractors on the design of both short-term and long-term floating production facilities.

At that time, industry sources told Upstream that at least five players are battling to land a contract to lease a "vessel of opportunity" able to handle 60,000 barrels per day of crude or more, plus significant quantities of gas. First oil is being targeted as soon as 2018.

The quintet chasing the FPSO order, said sources, comprise Bluewater, BW Offshore, Modec, Saipem and SBM Offshore.

This early production system, suggested sources, could be the forerunner of a full-field project, tentatively based on a larger FPSO with capacity in the range of 150,000 to 200,000 bpd. However, industry sources cautioned that the supermajor has not yet taken definite decisions on its preferred strategy for Liza, and how it will move to full field development is not yet clear.

One source suggested two or three players may be asked to take part in a competitive FEED contest lasting six to nine months, leading to a potential contract award in the third quarter of next year.