LONDON (Alliance News) - Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas Ltd said Wednesday its initial 2019 drilling programme has been approved, which will see its first exploration drilling on Orinduik, Guyana in "late May, early June".
The net cost of the first well, named the Jethro-Lobe prospect, is expected to be USD7.6 million, which is located 170 kilometres offshore in the Suriname Guyana basin.
Eco Atlantic's partners on the Orinduik block - Total SA and, the operator, Tullow Oil PLC - approved the plan, which will be the first well of at least two drilling well campaigns.
Eco Atlantic holds a 15% working interest in Orinduik, Tullow Oil holds 60% and Total SA holds 25%, after exercising an option to acquire part of Eco's interest in September.
Eco Atlantic said it is fully funded for the 2019 drilling campaign, with current cash of over USD20 million.
The prospect, which will be drilled from a conventional drill ship, is an upper cretaceous stratigraphically trapped canyon turbidite in about 1,350 meters of water.
"We have a great deal of confidence in the selection of the Jethro-Lobe drill candidate; the partners are unanimous on the selection of the location, reservoir quality, charge and production characteristics and view this candidate as having a high chance of success and potential for a first discovery," said Colin Kinley, Eco's chief operating officer.
The project is located 11 kilometres "up-dip" from Exxon Mobil Corp and Hess Corp's recent Liza discovery, which includes the Stabroek block.
Kinley added: "Our confidence was bolstered even further by the upgraded estimate of the discovered recoverable resource to over 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent on the Stabroek Block, as announced by ExxonMobil and Hess on December 3. Further evaluation of previous discoveries in addition to the tenth discovery on the block, Pluma-1, contributed to the upgrade. Each successful well drilled on Stabroek lowers Eco's risk on Orinduik."
Shares in Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas were down 1.2% Wednesday at 45.95 pence each.
