Tullow eyes shore base in Guyana, appraisal wells to be drilled next year

Last Updated on Sunday, 6 October 2019, 16:47 by Writer

The United Kingdom-headquartered Tullow Oil, which has discovered oil twice offshore Guyana, says it is already advancing plans to set up a shore base here.

Tullow’s Head of Communications, George Cazenove says the shore base will be established in another two to three months. “We will have a shore base here…. You will see a greater presence,” he told News-Talk Radio 103.1 FM/Demerara Waves Online News.

Already, Tullow has established an office in Georgetown. The company is expected to lease land to set up its own facility, mindful of the shallowness of the Demerara River.

Cazenove says drilling of the two recent oil exploration wells offshore Guyana was staged out of a shore base in Trinidad.

Stressing that Tullow is “very enthusiastic” about its oil finds in Guyana, he says appraisal wells will be drilled next year to ascertain the quantity of oil that has been found.

Cazenove indicated that Tullow was not in a hurry to fast-track its operations into commercial production before five years. “That’s a big moment. It is not something that we take lightly and it is not something that we do in a hurry,” he said.

He noted that if exploration on the Kanuku block is “successful”, that might change the outlook for Tullow.

Already, Tullow alone is estimated to spend at least US$80 million (net) on exploration activities by the end of this year. There was no immediate estimate available of how much cash would be injected into oil exploration operations in Guyana.

In mid-September, Tullow found oil at the Joe-1 exploration well which successfully opened a new upper tertiary oil play in the Guyana basin. Prior, Tullow first found oil in potentially commercial quantities in its Jethro-1 exploration well in August, 2019.