Tullow hires drillship for Guyana drilling. Spud date set for June

Oil and gas company Tullow has hired a drillship to drill for oil in its Orinduik Block, offshore Guyana, Eco Atlantic, a partner in the project, has informed.

The rig in question is the Stena Forth, a sixth-generation drillship owned by Stena Drilling. The Stena Forth drillship will drill the 250 million barrel  Jethro-Lobe prospect on the Orinduik Block offshore Guyana, near the block containing a dozen of oil discoveries made by ExxonMobil in the past three years.

The Stena Forth is a harsh environment, dynamically positioned Class 3 drillship, capable of operating in up to 10,000 feet of water to a maximum drill depth of 35,000 feet. The Stena Forth is currently drilling for Tullow in Ghana under a contract awarded in June 2018.

“Eco Atlantic confirms that the contract with Stena secures the rig for transport at the end of May, targeting a June 2019 spud date. Further, the agreement also defines a window for a second well on the Orinduik Block, which would be drilled after the Jethro-Lobe well has been drilled. Long lead items, including the wellheads and casings for two wells, have been secured and ordered. The Orinduik partners are currently reviewing plans for a second well and anticipate formalizing those plans in the coming week,” Eco Atlantic said.

Eco holds a 15% working interest in the block, Total – which recently acquired working interest from Eco – has 25% interest and the operator Tullow Oil holds the remaining 60%.

Eco Atlantic did not provide details on the Stena Forth contract value, nor on the contract length.

The company said that the partnership, when deciding on the rig to be used for the Jethro-Lobe well, factored in the fact that the Stena Forth is already operating in a similar drilling environment with an experienced crew, and the operator has a good understanding of the operating requirements.

The partners have also approved the majority of the rig servicing contracts to ensure smooth and timely operations with the Stena Forth. Wellheads have been ordered from DrillQuip, and support ship and infrastructure agreements are now underway, Eco Atlantic said.

Colin Kinley, Chief Operating Officer for Eco Atlantic, stated: “Eco is pleased to have secured the Stena Forth Drillship for this initial drill program on Orinduik. This state-of-the-art Class 3 Rig has overall capacity ratings at close to double our operating requirements. The rig is operating, which is a great advantage to the partners.

“The partners selected the 250 million barrel Jethro-Lobe Tertiary prospect in December, which is only a few kilometers away and up dip from multiple Exxon discoveries in the region and in the same proven resource intervals. While the Jethro-Lobe is a Tertiary target, which we believe is similar to the Exxon Hammerhead discovery that appears to extend onto Orinduik, we will also drill down to test the Cretaceous section below Jethro.”

Offshore Energy Today Staff