ExxonMobil has commenced drilling a new well in the Stabroek Block, while also conducting drill stem testing on the Redtail-1 well where it found high-quality reservoirs of oil back in September of this year.
In the meantime, the drill stem test on the Redtail-1 well will be geared towards assessing the reservoir quality of the oil find. On Monday, Upstream Oil reported that the US oil giant had started its drill stem on one of its most promising hydrocarbons in the prolific Stabroek Block.
It was expected that ExxonMobil would do the test between December 11 and 22, using Stena Carron – the same drillship that spudded the ill-fated Tanager-1 well last month, which was found to not be commercially viable notwithstanding its status as Exxon’s deepest well in the Guyana-Suriname basin.
Last year, Exxon made five discoveries offshore Guyana. Discoveries were made in the Tilapia-1 well, Haimara-1, Yellowtail-1, Tripletail-1 and the Mako-1 well. These discoveries had pushed the total estimated recoverable barrels of oil equivalent to over six billion.
The company also discovered oil in the Uaru-1 well back in January 2020. Uaru was ExxonMobil’s 16th oil discovery in the Stabroek Block.
So far, the Liza-1 well has accounted for all of Guyana’s oil production. Guyana only began producing oil last year in the Stabroek Block, lifting its first million barrels of profit oil from the Liza-1 well in February 2020.
The Bank of Guyana’s half-year report, which covers the period up to the end of June 2020, had previously revealed that Guyana produced over 10 million barrels of oil during the first half of 2020.
