Exxon targeting ‘sweet spots’ deeper in Stabroek Block

Exxon targeting ‘sweet spots’ deeper in Stabroek Block – Hess Boss

Jun 08, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Hess Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), John Hess has disclosed that the majority of the oil that has been discovered in Guyana’s Stabroek Block has been at 15,000 feet. But much deeper, at 18,000 feet to be exact, the ExxonMobil-led joint venture is finding more large pools of sweet oil.

John Hess, CEO of Hess Corporation

The CEO made this disclosure during his participation at the Bernstein’s 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference. He noted that at 15,000 ft in the block, geologists refer to this section as the Upper Campanian; the Cretaceous age. In simpler terms, the oil is found in a layer of the earth that spans a timeframe from 83.6 to 72.1 million years ago.
“But what we are finding now is at 18,000 feet there are sand channels and those sand channels are actually starting to trap the oil that is also being trapped at 15,000 feet. We have drilled to 18,000 feet but they were never optimally located to drill the biggest prospects,” the Hess Boss said.
He added, “This year we luckily drilled a well called Fangtooth that was optimally located at 18,000 feet and we found the material oil deposit that in and of itself could underpin another Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel and it is very high quality oil.”
Earlier this year, Guyanese authorities had announced that the Fangtooth-1 well had encountered approximately 164 feet (50 metres) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. The well was drilled in 6,030 feet (1,838 metres) of water and is located approximately 11 miles (18 kilometres) northwest of the Liza field.
Now that the partners have correlated the wells which total over 26 in the block, the Hess Boss said the partners are targeting oil not only at 15,000 but 18,000 feet. Hess said the joint venture is starting to find other attractive and deep prospects which can either be used to support and expand the production of existing projects or developed as a standalone project. “So clearly we are still in the early innings.”
The Hess Boss also boasted about the cost to drill wells in Guyana. He noted that it might take 30 days to drill a well but it is cheaper to do it here than in the Deep Water Gulf of Mexico. Kaieteur News understands that it costs about US$30M to US$50M to drill wells in the Stabroek Block. It would be higher for much deeper wells.
Hess and its co-venture partners currently have four sanctioned developments on the Stabroek Block.
The Liza Phase 1 development, which began production in December 2019 utilising the Liza Destiny floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) with a production capacity of approximately 120,000 gross barrels of oil per day, recently completed production optimisation work that expanded its production capacity to more than 140,000 gross barrels of oil per day.
The Liza Phase 2 development, utilising the Liza Unity FPSO, began production in February 2022 and is expected to reach its production capacity of approximately 220,000 gross barrels of oil per day by the third quarter.
The third development at Payara is ahead of schedule and is now expected to come online in late 2023 utilising the Prosperity FPSO with a production capacity of approximately 220,000 gross barrels of oil per day.
The fourth development, Yellowtail, is expected to come online in 2025, utilising the ONE GUYANA FPSO with a production capacity of approximately 250,000 gross barrels of oil per day.
At least six FPSOs with a production capacity of more than one million gross barrels of oil per day are expected to be online on the Stabroek Block in 2027, with the potential for up to 10 FPSOs to develop gross discovered recoverable resources.
Guyana’s Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometres). ExxonMobil affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, is the operator and holds 45 percent interest in the Block. Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30 percent interest, and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited holds 25 percent interest.