Guyana’s oil could be finished in less than 40 years –T&T Geologist

Oct 08, 2019 News

By Kiana Wilburg

Guyana’s offshore basin holds over six billion barrels of oil. This impressive find which follows from extensive exploratory work by ExxonMobil is expected to place the nation shoulder to shoulder with some of the world’s biggest producers. But for how long will this last?

To answer this question, there are two areas Trinidadian geologist, Anthony Paul states one must look at—Geology and Policy.

T&T Geologist, Anthony Paul

Speaking to the former, Paul explained that Guyana’s basin features Cretaceous and Tertiary plays. Cretaceous sands were formed over 65 million years ago and in very deep waters. The Tertiary in comparison, was formed more recently, and is therefore quite young. Also, for the Cretaceous sands, these are very clean and permeable or porous therefore allowing it to be drained faster than the Tertiary which has less porosity.

Map showing the Guyana basin

In simpler terms, Paul said, “Think of it as having two buckets filled with marbles and water. One has 200 marbles, the other has 3000, smaller ones. It will be much easier for you to drain the bucket with 200 marbles with a straw, because there are fewer obstacles for it to move around and for the water to cling to. This is how porosity works with those rocks. The Cretaceous rock is the one with the 200 marbles while the Tertiary is the bucket with the 3000 smaller ones.”

Interestingly, 11 out of the 14 discoveries made by ExxonMobil thus far are in the Cretaceous play.

When compared to Trinidad and Tobago’s basin, Paul told Kaieteur News that Guyana’s is obviously more superior.

The Geologist said, “TT rocks are very fractured and that has pushed the oil all over the basin. Also, the reservoirs holding the oil are very small so when we have to drill 20 wells to drain a small surface area, Guyana would have to drill two or four which would drain it.”

He continued, “But the good and bad thing about the basin in Guyana is because it is so easy to produce; you can drain it very quickly so Guyana’s oil industry, given the existing discoveries, could be done in less than 40 years.”

Paul added, “That said, with evolving technologies…smaller reservoirs that are today not economically viable, could become so and prolong the life of the fields, including deep water.”

Turning his attention to policy, Paul highlighted the fact that Guyana does not have a publicly stated policy for managing the pace of depletion by the operator. He stressed that a policy for this needs to be in place as soon as possible.

“…Otherwise, operators like Exxon will continue to ramp up the development of the fields, drain as much as they can as quickly as possible and then pack up and leave when their profit margins begin to slow…”

At the same time, Paul said that the ability of Guyanese to ramp up capability to provide local content will be diminished if the activities are rushed.

“Remember, for companies, time is money. Their objective is to maximise profitability. Governments have to strike a balance between maximum profit and maximum recovery.”

GUYANA IS PREPARING

Last year November, the Department of Energy told the media that it is doing some amount of work on the front of preparing Guyana for a booming and fully functional oil sector. While all cannot be done simultaneously, Head of the Department, Dr. Mark Bynoe, had assured that plans are in the pipeline.

Dr. Bynoe had indicated that the government earmarked sums of money secured from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to fund projects for the strengthening and management of Guyana’s nascent oil sector.

Dr. Bynoe had said that significant loans have already been agreed, and the government is in the process of agreeing on initiatives that will be targeted for next year. One of those initiatives he said, was the completion of a depletion policy.