ExxonMobil starts drilling fourth well

Mar 01, 2017 News

US-owned ExxonMobil has spud its next exploration well offshore Guyana after pausing its drilling campaign momentarily for a well test at its Payara discovery.

The Stena Carron drillship has started work on a fourth exploratory well for ExxonMobil.

The Stena Carron drillship started drilling Snoek, its fourth well, on February 22, last on the Stabroek block offshore Guyana, an ExxonMobil representative told Upstream.
The well is located about six miles to the south-east of ExxonMobil’s Liza discovery.
Snoek is ExxonMobil’s fourth exploration well in its drilling campaign offshore Guyana, which began in 2015 with the Liza discovery that is estimated to contain more than one billion barrels of recoverable oil.
ExxonMobil followed Liza with the Skipjack well, which was a dry hole and the Payara well, which hit 95 feet of net pay and was recently characterised by partner Hess, as a commercial discovery.
The Snoek prospect, according to Upstreamonline.com, is testing a stratigraphic trap, similar to the Liza and Payara discovery wells.
Stena Carron arrived at Snoek after completing a drill stem test at Payara.
The Payara-1 probe was drilled to a total depth of 5,512 metres late last year and hit 95 feet of net pay.
Chief executive John Hess called it a “significant oil discovery”, which, coincidentally, is the same language that Hess and ExxonMobil used when announcing the Liza oil find that is now considered among the largest of the last decade.
“It’s definitely going to be commercial,” Hess chief operating officer Greg Hill said at a recent energy conference. “It could be tieback or could be standalone – appraisal will determine which of those dimensions you are on.”
After Snoek, ExxonMobil has said that it plans to drill a fourth appraisal at Liza and could then turn its attention back to exploration or potentially drill an appraisal well at Payara.
ExxonMobil operates the 6.6 million-acre Stabroek block with a 45% interest and is partnered with the Hess (30%) and CNOOC subsidiary Nexen (25%).
The oil discovery is the first commercial one for Guyana and is expected to dramatically change the course of this country’s future when production starts in 2020 with Guyana to start collecting proceeds.
Guyana is studying the feasibility of building an oil refinery with training and new legislations being worked on to ready the country for oil.

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