ExxonMobil finds non-commercial hydrocarbon reserves in Bulletwood-1 well

ExxonMobil (US) and its partners have reportedly failed to find commercial quantities of crude oil or natural gas in Bulletwood-1, the first exploration well drilled at the Canje block offshore Guyana.

According to Jersey-headquartered Westmount Energy, an indirect shareholder in Canje, the US super-major used the Stena Carron drillship to sink Bulletwood-1 in 2,846-metre-deep water. It drilled the wildcat well to the planned target depth of 6,690 metres and “encountered quality reservoirs but non-commercial hydrocarbons,” Westmount said in a statement last week.

The company did not comment on the size of the find, saying only that it was of a size that made commercial development uneconomical. It did say, though, that the drilling programme had confirmed that the Guyana-Suriname Basin petroleum system extended into the Canje block.

ExxonMobil and the other investors in the project had hoped to find up to 500mn barrels of crude at the Bulletwood field, which is believed to share geological features with Liza-1, the only producing oilfield at the neighbouring Stabroek block. When they spudded Bulletwood-1 in January, Westmount said in a separate statement that the well would “[target] a Liza look-alike, confined channel complex of Late Cretaceous, Campanian age.”

Last week, though, it noted that the partners were now looking to explore other sections of Canje and would sink two more exploration wells before the end of this year. Work on the Jabillo-1 and Sapote-1 wells is due to begin in the near future, it said. It then reported in a separate statement dated March 9 that the Stena Carron was expected to start drilling Jabillo-1 the following day. (For her part, Janelle Persaud, the public and government affairs advisor for ExxonMobil’s local subsidiary, informed OilNOW.gy on March 10 that the Stena Carron drillship was expected to spud Jabillo-1 “later this week.”)

Westmount has said that Canje may turn out to hold a total of 10bn barrels of oil. This would make it even larger than Stabroek, which is currently estimated to contain 9bn barrels. (ExxonMobil is serving as operator of both blocks.)

Equity in the Canje project is divided between ExxonMobil, with 35%; Total (France), with 35%; JHI (Canada), with 17.5%, and Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas (Guyana), with 12.5%. JHI, which is approximately 7.7% owned by Westmount, used to have a larger stake in the block. However, it reduced its equity holdings via a farm-out deal with Total in 2018.