Offshore staff
LONDON – ExxonMobil’s recent Hammerhead-1 well oil discovery offshore Guyana has also opened a new play in sandstone reservoirs of Tertiary age, according to analyst Westwood.
These are younger and distinct from the previously successful Cretaceous age reservoirs in the Liza sandstone play and Ranger carbonate plays, also in the Stabroek block.
According to Keith Myers, president, Research at Westwood, the new Tertiary play could lead to the emergence of a possible 10 Bbbl-plus offshore province, second in scale this century only to the emerging presalt province off Brazil.
This scale of resource could support plateau production of more than 1 MMb/d for a decade or more, he added.
Considering Guyana’s small population of only 800,000, this would make the country the world’s biggest per capita oil producer, Myers suggested, with this level of production at $70/bbl generating $32,000 per capita of gross annual oil revenue, before costs and oil company profits.
However, the oil companies involved – ExxonMobil, CNOOC, and Hess – must work out their role in supporting the transformation of resources of this scale into sustainable development, he warned.
09/05/2018
