Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas to commence drilling offshore Guyana in 2019

Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas confirmed on Wednesday that it will drill its first Guyanese exploration well at the Jethro-Lobe offshore prospect as part of its 2019 programme.

In a statement, the company said it will aim to drill at least one well at the prospect, which is 1,350 metres underwater and described as “an upper cretaceous stratigraphically trapped canyon turbidite”, in late May or early June of next year.

With a 15% share of the well, which it shares with Orinduik Block partners Total and Tullow Oil, Eco is expected to incur net costs of $7.6m from the process.

Colin Kinley, chief operating officer of Eco Atlantic, said: "We have a great deal of confidence in the selection of the Jethro-Lobe drill candidate; the Partners are unanimous on the selection of the location, reservoir quality, charge and production characteristics and view this candidate as having a high chance of success and potential for a first discovery."

The block Partners have approved the purchase of necessary long lead items and are looking over proposals from drilling and service contractors for firm drilling windows within the envisaged time-frame and competitive rates.

"Our confidence was bolstered even further by the upgraded estimate of the discovered recoverable resource to over 5bn barrels of oil equivalent on the Stabroek Block, as announced by ExxonMobil and Hess on 3 December 2018. Further evaluation of previous discoveries in addition to the tenth discovery on the block, Pluma-1, contributed to the upgrade," said Kinley.

Eco expects a minimum of two wells in the 2019 programme and is sufficiently funded, with more than $20m in the bank as of 29 November.

Eco Atlantic’s shares were down 1.94% at 45.60p at 1249 GMT.

Source: https://www.theoilandgasyear.com/news/baker-hughes-wins-saudi-aramco-deal/