Guyana, Suriname

Locator: 10010GUYANA.
Locator: 10010SURINAME.

March 2, 2024: how much oil in Guyana? Now estimated to be one-half trillion dollars. Link here.

February 27, 2024: Chevron-Hess $53 billion merger at risk; XOM and CNOOC claim right of first refusal to buy out Hess stake in Guyana. If XOM and/or CNOOC "win" that argument, there's really no reason for Chevron to pursue Hess, except for Bakken and DJ Basin.

September 8, 2023: update.

March 6, 2023: Guyana wants to bring in more majors. 

November 29, 2022: update here.

August 19, 2021: Guyana, Suriname oil drilling activity to jump. Link to Irina Slav.

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Background

Guyana-Suriname Basin: rise from obscurity to super potential, WorldOil, May, 2021.

• estimates of 10+ billion bbls of oil
• estimates of 30 tera cubic feet of natural gas

THE EARLY EXPLORATION

Onshore exploration. In both Suriname and Guyana, oil seeps were known from the 1800s, into the 1900s. Exploration in Suriname discovered oil at a 160 m depth while drilling for water in a schoolyard in Calcutta Village.² The onshore Tambaredjo oil field (15-17 ^oAPI oil) was discovered in 1968. First oil began in 1982. Satellite oil fields to Calcutta and Tambaredjo were added. These fields had an original STOOIP of 1 Bbbl of oil. Currently, these fields are producing around 16,000 bopd.² Staatsolie’s crude is processed at Tout Lui Faut refinery, at 15,000 bpd, to produce diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, and bitumen.

Guyana did not have the same onshore success; since 1916, 13 wells have been drilled, but only two wells have shown oil.³ Onshore oil exploration in the 1940s produced geological studies in Takatu basin. Three wells were drilled between 1981 and 1993, all either dry or non-commercial. These wells confirmed the presence of thick black shale, Cenomanian-Turonian age (known as Canje Fm), equivalent to the La Luna formation in Venezuela.

Venezuela has a thriving oil exploration and production history.⁴ Drilling success dates back to 1908, first in the western part of the country with the Zumbaque 1 well,⁵ with production in Lake Maracaibo rising during WWI and into the 1920s and 1930s. Of course, the tar sands in the Orinoco Belt, discovered in 1936,⁶ have significantly impacted the oil reserves and resources, contributing to the 78 Bbbl of oil reserves; this reservoir gives Venezuela the current first position on reserves. La Luna formation (Cenomanian-Turonian) is a world-class source rock for much of this oil. La Luna⁷ is responsible for most of the oil found and produced from the Maracaibo basin and several others in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The source rock found offshore Guyana and Suriname has similar characteristics to those found in La Luna, and is the same age.

Offshore Guyana oil exploration: Shelf region. Exploration on the continental shelf began in earnest in 1967,⁷ with the Guyana Offshore-1 and -2 wells. A 15-year gap ensued until the Arapaima-1 was drilled, followed by Horseshoe-1 in 2000 and the 2012 wells, Eagle-1 and Jaguar-1. Six of these nine wells had either oil or gas shows; only the Abary-1, drilled in 1975, flowed oil (37 ^oAPI). Although the lack of any economic discovery was disappointing, these wells were very important, because they confirmed a functioning petroleum system was generating oil.

Offshore Suriname oil exploration: Shelf region. The story of exploration on the continental shelf in Suriname mirrors that of Guyana. Nine wells were drilled through 2011, three of which had oil shows; the others were dry. Again, the lack of economic discoveries was disappointing, but these wells confirmed a functioning petroleum system was generating oil.

ODP Leg 207 drilled five sites in 2003 on the Demerara Rise, which separates the Guyana-Suriname basin from offshore French Guiana. Very importantly, all five wells encountered the same Cenomanian-Turonian Canje Fm source rock found in Guyana and Suriname wells, which was a confirmation of the presence of a source rock as La Luna.

Much more at this link.

Guyana success.

ExxonMobil/Hess et al. announced in May 2015 the now-famous Liza-1 discovery well in Stabroek license, offshore Guyana (Liza-1 well12).

Upper Cretaceous turbidite sands are the reservoir.

The follow-up Skipjack-1 well, drilled in 2016, found no commercial hydrocarbons.

Through 2020, the Stabroek partners have announced a total of 18 discoveries, amounting to a gross recoverable resource over 8 Bbbl of oil (corporate ExxonMobil)!

The Stabroek partners solved the concerns about the seismic response to hydrocarbon-bearing versus water-bearing reservoirs (Hess Investor, 2018 Investor Day 8).

A deeper Albian age source rock has been confirmed in some wells.

Interestingly, ExxonMobil and partners found oil in a carbonate reservoir in the Ranger-1 well, announced in 2018. Evidence suggests that this is a carbonate bank that accumulated atop a subsiding volcano.

The Haimara-18 discovery, announced in February 2019 as a gas condensate discovery in 63 m of high-quality reservoir. Haimara-1 sits adjacent to the border between Stabroek, Guyana, and Block 58, Suriname.