ExxonMobil drills dry hole at Jabillo-1

ExxonMobil (US) has experienced a disappointment at the Canje block offshore Guyana, as it did not find commercial quantities of hydrocarbons in the Jabillo-1 well.

According to a statement from Canada’s Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas, an indirect shareholder in the project, the exploration well was sunk in a location that is about 265 km north-east of Georgetown in 2,903-metre-deep water. It was drilled to a total depth of 6,475 metres and was able to test the designated target layers – namely, Upper Cretaceous reservoirs in a stratigraphic trap.

However, the statement said, Jabillo-1 “did not show evidence of commercial hydrocarbons.” As such, it is now due to be plugged and abandoned.

ExxonMobil and the other shareholders in the Canje project are now pinning their hopes on the next exploration drilling target – Sapote-1, which lies in the eastern section of the block. The partners expect to spud the new well in mid-August, after the Stena DrillMAX drillship finishes its current assignment at the neighbouring Stabroek block, which is also operated by ExxonMobil.

Sapote-1 will be drilled at a site that is about 100 km south-east of Jabillo-1. The site is also 50 km north of Haimara, a section of the Stabroek block where ExxonMobil encountered about 63 metres of gas condensate-bearing sandstone reservoirs in an exploration well, and 60 km north-west of Maka Central, a section of Block 58 offshore Suriname where TotalEnergies (France) encountered about 50 metres of oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs in another exploration well.

“While today’s update from JHI is disappointing, this is the nature of oil exploration,” commented Gil Holzman, Eco Atlantic’s co-founder and CEO. “Our stakeholders continue to support our exploration efforts and look for us to continue to define these near-term high-impact opportunities. Our next focus is the Sapote-1 prospect to be spudded in the upcoming weeks, which brings us another opportunity to share in what we hope to be another major ExxonMobil led discovery.”

He also expressed optimism about the prospect of finding hydrocarbons in the Sapote section of the Canje block, saying: “The targets in the region have proven to hold some hundreds of millions of barrels of oil and oil equivalent, and we look forward to similar scaled results from this upcoming well.”

Eco Atlantic recently gained an indirect stake in the Canje project via its acquisition of a 6.4% stake in JHI Associates, a Canadian company that has 17.5% of the block. The remaining equity in Canje is divided between ExxonMobil (operator), with 35%; TotalEnergies, with 35%; and Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas, with 12.5%.