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12th September, 2011
Tullow Discovers Oil Offshore French Guiana
By Times Reporter
Tullow Oil plc has announced that its Zaedyus exploration well (GM-ES-1), offshore French Guiana, has made an oil discovery having encountered 72 metres of net oil pay in two turbidite fans.
Results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids show that the well has encountered good quality reservoir sands on prognosis.
A statement issued by the company said the objective of the Zaedyus well was to test whether the Jubilee-play, successfully established in West Africa, was mirrored on the other side of the Atlantic.
This discovery the statement said open a new hydrocarbon basin within which several neighbouring prospects have been mapped.
The statement quoted Angus McCoss, Tullow’s Exploration Director, commented as saying that“the discovery at Zaedyus has proved the extension of the Jubilee-play across the Atlantic and made an important new discovery in French Guiana.
Tullow he said had built a commanding and unique acreage position in South America and this result marks the start of a significant and potentially transformational long-term exploration and appraisal campaign in the region.
“This result also reduces the exploration risk associated with Tullow’s prospect inventory offshore French Guiana, Suriname and Guyana. An appraisal programme and extensive follow-up exploration activities will now be considered,” it said.
The Zaedyus well is being drilled in the Guyane Maritime licence using the ENSCO 8503 deepwater semi submersible.
The well was drilled in water depths of 2,048 metres and has been drilled to a depth of 5,711 metres.
Drilling operations will now continue and the well will be deepened to over 6,000 metres to calibrate the deeper geology.
The well will then likely be sidetracked to enable cores to be obtained over the reservoir sections.
In Africa, Tullow has production in Ghana, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, Mauritania, Congo (Brazzaville) and Equatorial Guinea with two large appraisal and development programmes in Ghana and Uganda.
Tullow also has exploration interests in Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mauritania, Senegal, Tanzania, Madagascar, Namibia, Kenya and Ethiopia.
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