Guyana: Exxon confirms Pecora find. Plans to link it to Payara FPSO

ExxonMobil has officially confirmed making the Pecora-1 oil discovery in the Starbroek block, offshore Guyana, and it already has plans on how it wants to develop the latest find.

To remind, Guyanese authorities issued a brief report of the discovery earlier today without providing much detail on the size of it.

In a subsequent announcement on Wednesday, Exxon said it had encountered approximately 65 feet (20 meters) of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoir.

“The well was safely drilled to 18,363 feet (5,597 meters) depth in 6,781 feet (2,067 meters) of water. Drilling commenced on Jan. 29, 2018,” Exxon said.

“This latest discovery further increases our confidence in developing this key area of the Stabroek Block,” said Steve Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company. “Pacora will be developed in conjunction with the giant Payara field…”

John Hess, CEO of Hess, Exxon’s partner in the project, said: “The giant Payara field, which is planned as the third development offshore Guyana, will now include Pacora resources – increasing the size of the FPSO and bringing expected gross production from the first three phases of development to more than 500,000 barrels of oil per day.”

Hess did not say more on the expected capacity of the FPSO for the development.

Exxon has previously said the planed start-up for the Payara could be between 2023 and 2024, after the first two phases at the Liza field.  Guyana currently does not produce oil, however, the first phase of the Liza development is expected to start producing in 2020.

The Pacora-1 well is located approximately four miles west of the Payara-1 well, and follows previous discoveries on the Stabroek Block at Liza, Payara, Liza Deep, Snoek, Turbot, and Ranger.

Drillship back to Liza

Following completion of the Pacora-1 well, the Stena Carron drillship will move to the Liza field to drill the Liza-5 well and complete a well test, which will be used to assess concepts for the Payara development.

ExxonMobil announced project sanctioning for the Liza phase one development in June 2017. It will develop it using a 120,000 boepd FPSO leased from SBM Offshore.

Following Liza-5, the Stena Carron will conduct additional exploration and appraisal drilling on the block.

The U.S. oil major has also submitted an application for an environmental permit to develop the second phase of Liza. The development concept for the second phase includes a larger FPSO and subsea systems.

The FPSO production capacity would be 220,000 barrels of oil per day with start-up expected by mid-2022.

ExxonMobil is the operator of the giant Stabroek block offshore Guyana. The company has discovered more than 3.2 billion oil-equivalent barrels of recoverable resource on the Stabroek block, not including the recent Ranger and the latest Pecora discoveries.

Offshore Energy Today Staff