Locator: 48462SURINAME.
From earlier:Guyana, Antilles, Wear Indies.
Reminder:
Link here.
So, this is what we have:
- Trinidad and Tobago: Shell.
- Surinam: Apache and TTE.
- Guyana: XOM.
- Venezuela: CVX.
A reader alerted me to a Charles Kennedy article on Guyana, dated March 6, 2023.
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Most Recent
RBN Energy: today, more recent -- Suriname sets its site on becoming major oil supplier with offshore boost. Archived.
As crude oil production surges off the coast of Guyana, its eastern
neighbor, Suriname, has set off on its own mission to become a global
oil supplier. With some onshore production active for decades, the tiny
South American nation now has its sights set on developing its vast
offshore reserves. While there have been some setbacks, its
international partners are getting their plans back on track. In today’s
RBN blog, we’ll take a deep dive into what’s ahead for Suriname.
We previously highlighted how Guyana has been a rising star (see Break My Stride) in the global crude market, even if it’s only a recent entrant. Guyana now has three crude grades to offer markets (see My Guy)
since its first major oil discovery just a decade ago. The offshore
Stabroek block’s only oil-producing area (yellow-shaded area in Figure 1
below) is churning out more than 650 Mb/d of oil from three projects in
the reserve-rich Guyana-Suriname Basin (area within dashed-green line).
Owners of these assets want to roughly double that volume by the end of
2027 with three more projects. It’s worth noting that in 2000, the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that the underexplored areas of the
Suriname-Guyana Basin held 13.6 billion barrels of oil and 32 trillion
cubic feet (Tcf) of gas. But Guyana isn’t the only country with plans to
develop those reserves.
Figure 1. The Guyana-Suriname Basin and the Stabroek Block. Source: RBN
The Guyana-Suriname Basin stretches across three countries on the
Atlantic coast of South America: Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. The
oil-rich formation has an onshore segment but is predominantly an
offshore play. Suriname has been extracting minimal amounts of crude oil
from the onshore basin since the 1980s but the former Dutch colony
wants to raise its profile as a petroleum supplier with its offshore oil
bonanza, mirroring its neighbor’s success. (Suriname’s maritime border
indicated by dashed-pink line in Figure 1.)
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Guyana, Suriname
Re-posting from August 19, 2021. Link here.
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.
From March 6, 2023, link here:
Locator: 10011GUYANA.
Tag: Guyana, Antilles, Wear Indies.
Reminder:
Link here.
So, this is what we have:
- Trinidad and Tobago: Shell.
- Surinam: Apache and TTE.
- Guyana: XOM.
- Venezuela: CVX.
A reader alerted me to a Charles Kennedy article on Guyana today.
I had forgotten that Hess partnered with XOM on Guyana.
Now we watch for Shell and and CVX bidding for Guyana; both have experience in this geographic area.
Guyana is tracked here at the sidebar at the right. That site needs to be updated.
