Page 54: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2017)

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Latin AmericaLatin America

Apache: Offshore Suriname Position Peru offshore acreage map Map of Blocks awarded during Uruguay’s Round 2

REGIONAL OVERVIEW

Image from Apache. Image from PeruPetro.

Image from ANCAP.

At the time, Exxon also said it had applied for a production Elsewhere in Guyana, UK Independent Tullow announced license and submitted its initial development plan for the Liza in February that it plans to acquire 3D seismic data over the ? eld to the Guyana Ministry of Natural Resources. The plan offshore Orinduik license, awarded in 2016, and the Kanuku includes development drilling, operation of the FPSO, and license. Both are up-dip of the Liza discovery. The two pro- subsea, umbilical, riser and ? owline systems. grams are expected to cover up to 6000sq km and will enable

Wood Mackenzie said in early February that there are huge evaluation of attractive leads mapped on existing 2D seismic expectations for Guyana to become a serious upstream player data.

by the next decade, despite the challenges associated with

Suriname developing an oil industry from the ground up. “It’s not often that a country goes from zero to 60 so fast like this,” Matt Tullow’s Exploration Director Angus McCoss referred to the

Blomerth, Wood Mackenzie head of Latin America upstream Guyana-Suriname basin as the industry’s “hotspot at the mo- research, told the New York Times in January. ment,” in the company’s Q4 earnings call early February, and “After [Exxon] drilled a dry hole at the Skipjack pros- its Araku prospect there, a “game-changer.” The company is pect in September, Payara and Liza-3 recon? rmed the high calling its test of the Araku prospect, in offshore Block 54, its potential of the Cretaceous play in Guyana’s deepwaters,” “main drilling event” this year.

Wood Mackenzie said in a statement in January. “Payara’s Tullow plans to drill the high impact Araku prospect in proximity to Liza enables economies of scale for the area’s 2H 2017. McCoss said that the reservoir Tullow is targeting is development. The Guyanese government’s approval of a a Maastrichtian, a younger Cretaceous turbidite sand, and a $500 million oil and gas service hub on Crab Island will give similar-aged rock to what Payara is targeting off Guyana. added impetus.” The block has a large structural trap with resource po-

Of course, there are challenges ahead, including a lack tential of 500 MMbo, and has been signi? cantly de-risked of infrastructure. Wood Mackenzie estimates wellhead gas by a 4000sq km 3D seismic survey carried out in 2015, says volumes of 2.1-2.5 Tcf between Liza and Payara. “With no Tullow. A rig is currently being sourced for the well, which is offshore infrastructure or nearby gas market, the partners expected to cost $14 million net to Tullow to drill.