Tullow optimistic it can match Ghana’s success in Guyana- Country Manager
─ strong local content among successes
DPI, Guyana, Friday, November 29, 2019
Irish multinational oil and gas exploration company Tullow Oil is hoping to replicate the successes it has found in the West African country of Ghana, in Guyana.
Among those successes, is the high local content policy that exists.
The company’s country manager here Joachim Vogt told the Department of Public Information (DPI) recently, that while the oil company is now finding its footing in Guyana, it will not lose sight of the important policy.
“Tullow has important development in Ghana when the Jubilee field was discovered in 2007. FPSO’s are operated there. We have an important impact and we have from the local content standpoint strong experience over the years.”
“In the country (Ghana) which was in 2007, similar to Guyana in 2015, we had a substantial development there and still working on maximizing our activities there as in other countries. It is never a done deal; you have to improve and assess the situation as you go. We hope to duplicate that kind of success in Guyana,” Vogt told this publication.
The world-class Jubilee field was discovered by the Mahogany-1 (M-1) and Hyedua-1 (H-1) exploration wells.
Earlier this year, the company’s Executive Vice-President Dr. Ian Cloke said over 80% of the company’s workforce in Ghana are locals. For Guyana, he said Tullow will open tenders for future offshoot services to as many local companies as possible.
In August of this year, Tullow announced its first oil discovery in Guyana, with the Jethro-1 well on the Orinduik Block. The well, encountered 55m of net oil pay in high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoir in the Lower Tertiary play. The discovery was followed in September by the Joe-1 discovery in the Upper Tertiary play which is a new play opener for the overall Guyana basin.
The second discovery on the Orinduik Block successfully de-risked the petroleum system of the Western area of the Orinduik Block, where a significant number of Tertiary and Cretaceous age prospects were identified. The Cretaceous Carapa prospect in the non-operated Kanuku licence was the final well in the 2019 programme and commenced operations at the end of September with expected results in the fourth quarter of 2019.
With the two exploration wells already drilled in the Orinduik block, the operation is ongoing in the Kanaku block through Repsol. According to the country manager, the results from this will inform partner decisions on the way forward.
“There are joint ventures decisions and every next step is informed by results from seismic data, geological reviews and drilling. So, it is a picture that has to evolve and we are just at the beginning of this exploration phase and we have a a long way to go,” he told DPI.
“This is a very good start for us and we are very happy with that, but we are not at that stage working on a development plan. We need to have the perspectivity of the Orinduik block. That needs to be worked out and will take us quite a lot of work.”