Two exploration wells planned on Guyana's Stabroek Block in Q2: Hess

A day after announcing three new discoveries on the ExxonMobil-led Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, 30% partner Hess said April 27 two exploratory wells are planned to be drilled on the block in the next few months.

The Seabob and Kiru-Kiru wells should both be spudded in the second quarter, Hess President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Hill said during a first-quarter earnings conference call.

On April 26, Hess and ExxonMobil in separate statements said their Stabroek Block consortium, which also includes China's CNOOC, made three new discoveries on the block. The wells are Barreleye, Lukanani and Patwa. The new finds bring to 26 the number of significant Stabroek oil discoveries made by the trio since 2015.

'Massive' Stabroek accumulation

"[The three new discoveries] show how massive this accumulation is" offshore Guyana, Hill said. "And it just keeps getting bigger and better as we continue to grow."

"They basically have allowed us to increase expected gross recoverable hydrocarbons to approximately 11 billion barrels, including Fangtooth and Lau Lau, Hill said, referring to two additional discoveries the partners announced earlier in 2022.

"How and when these resources will get developed [will] be a function of appraisal drilling results and development studies, but we are very pleased with the results of all of the wells that we've seen this year," Hill said, adding the five total discoveries have "met or exceeded all of our expectations."

The Seabob well will be sited 10 miles south of Yellowtail, an April 2019 discovery that was greenlighted in February 2022 as the fourth development hub on Stabroek, to come online in 2025. Another find from 2020, Redtail, will tie into the Yellowtail development, Hill said.

Seabob targets relatively shallow Campanian reservoirs, he added.

Also, Kiru-Kiru is located three miles southeast of the Cataback well, an October 2021 Stabroek discovery, and will target both Campanian and Santonian or relatively deep reservoirs, Hill said.

In addition, an appraisal of Fangtooth is scheduled to be drilled in fourth-quarter 2022, he said.

All but a couple of the 26 Stabroek discoveries are located in the southeast portion of the block near the border with Suriname.

Suriname well planned at Block 42

In Suriname, planning is underway on Block 42 to drill the Zanderij-1 prospect around midyear 2022, Hill said. It will target both Campanian and Santonian aged reservoirs.

"We see the acreage as a potential play extension from the Stabroek Block with similar play types and trap styles," Hill said.

Hess, Chevron and Block 42 operator Shell each have one-third interests in the block.

The first Stabroek development, Liza Phase One, has been producing since December 2019 and has mostly been at or above nameplate capacity of 120,000 b/d since December 2020.

That development produced 130,000 b/d gross barrels of oi in the first quarter, and optimization work on it should bring the capacity to 140,000 b/d.

Two oil liftings occurred in the field in the first quarter, seven are planned for Q2 as Liza Phase Two came onstream in February, as it ramps up to 220,000 b/d of capacity, and eight liftings are projected for both the third and fourth quarters, Hess CFO John Rielly said.

A third development, Payara, is under construction and its first oil is expected before year-end 2023 – five months ahead of schedule, Hess and ExxonMobil said April 26.

"We're going to have significant cash flow growth and significant free cash flow growth throughout this year," Rielly said.

Barreleye, Lukanani and Patwa add to the block's productivity and will help determine future oil developments, ExxonMobil and Hess said. A total of at least six FPSOs with production capacity of 1 million b/d of production is eyed for the block by 2027, with the potential for up to 10 FPSOs to develop gross discovered recoverable resources.

Barreleye unearths oil column

The new Barreleye-1 well, drilled in 3,840 feet of water, found roughly 230 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone reservoirs, 52 feet of which is high quality oil bearing. The well is located about 20 miles southeast of the original Liza Field, Hess said, the first Stabroek oil development.

The Lukanani-1 well, sited in water depths of about 4,068 feet, found 115 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone reservoirs of which around 76 feet is high quality oil bearing. The well is located in the southeastern part of the block, about two miles west of the partners' Pluma discovery, unveiled in December 2018

The Patwa-1 well, drilled in 6,315 feet of water, found 108 feet of hydrocarbon bearing sandstone reservoirs. The well is sited about three miles northwest of the Cataback discovery.

"These discoveries and the updated resource estimate increase the confidence we have in our ambitious exploration strategy for the Stabroek Block and will help to inform our future development plans for the southeast part of the block," said Liam Mallon, president of ExxonMobil Upstream Company, in a company statement.

The three new discoveries further show the "extraordinary resource density" of the Stabroek Block, Hess CEO John Hess said in a separate statement. The finds "will underpin our queue of future development opportunities," he said.