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Is Exxon’s Hammerhead the next mega-discovery of oil?
DEAR EDITOR,
ExxonMobil’s announcement last Thursday that it made a new and its 13th oil discovery offshore Guyana at the Yellowtail-1 well included another bit of information worthy of some attention. The company also announced that two drillships are set to conduct additional drilling at the Hammerhead location. The Hammerhead well is the 9th oil discovery and was completed last August.
Up to that point, previous discoveries were estimated to contain recoverable resources of more than 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Hammerhead and the next three discoveries at Pluma, Haimara and Tilapia have now taken those estimates to over 5.5 billion barrels.
That Hammerhead, the 9th discovery, has now jumped the line for follow-up or appraisal drilling strongly suggests the oil reservoir there is far larger than the rest. Moreover, that the company has decided to drill two appraisal wells simultaneously in its high-quality sandstone reservoir must mean we are eventually looking at a mega-discovery of at least a billion barrels. Guyana will know by mid-May if we have another Liza.
Part of Hammerhead’s oil resources is already in the 5.5 billion barrels calculation. Therefore, should its appraisal confirm the presence of more oil, the total recoverable resources for the Stabroek Block may not make an eye-catching spike. Nevertheless, it is likely to be singled out as a monster find.
Finally, the lonely Ranger-1 well (the sixth oil find, located much further north) seems to be getting on-and-off treatment, getting pushed around the batting order. Of note, however, Exxon’s public statements suggest that Ranger’s estimated resources are not included in the 5.5 billion barrel total for the Stabroek Block.
Yours faithfully,
Sherwood Lowe
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