MARCH 9 2020: FRONTERA EARNINGS CALLHighlights from the call earlier today - it seems a JV is very probable at this point in time...
Commentary from Richard Hebert, CEO of FRONTERA:
- In Guyana, with our partner, CGX Energy, we have identified the first 2 drilling locations on our blocks where we are expected to start drilling later this year. The first well will be drilled in the Corentyne block, followed by a well in Demerara block.
Q&A - commentary from Richard Hebert, CEO of FRONTERA:
Anish Kapadia: My first question was really surrounding Guyana. So what I wanted to understand a bit better was the impact of the recent Apache well has had and maybe some of the initial thoughts on your seismic data. Clearly, Apache moved up pretty substantially, I think added about $4 billion of market cap with the discovery and it's gone now. So I was just wondering, from a geological perspective, do you see any of the same trends from the Apache block in your block? And from a kind of more commercial standpoint, are you seeing any increased levels of interest in your block as a result of those discoveries?
Richard Herbert: Yes. Anish, thank you for the question. On Guyana, yes, everyone has seen that Apache drilled a well in neighboring Suriname, which they announced as a major discovery, at the same time as they brought Total in as a partner. I mean I think what we, what I would say today is that we're in a basin that is extremely prolific. ExxonMobil have announced over 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent discoveries in their block in Guyana, and the Apache well was drilled on trend with that, just across the border in Suriname and right next to our Corentyne block which we share with CGX. So geologically, we are in a very similar territory. As we've explained before, we did not have 3D seismic data over the northern part of Corentyne, which we view as one of the most attractive parts of our acreage in Guyana. And that data was finally acquired in the fourth quarter of last year, and it's currently being processed. And we're starting to see some of the early products from that processing, but it will take a few months before we have that data fully available for interpretation. So we're very encouraged by Apache's results. It plays very well for our position in Guyana, especially in the Corentyne block, but it's still early days to see exactly how those trends pass into our block until we've seen the data.
And in terms of interest, yes, there's a lot of interest in our Guyana blocks. Our partner, CGX, has announced in the past that it's working actively to bring a joint venture partner into the block. And results, such as Apache's, can only help that. I hope that addresses your question.
Anish Kapadia: And just one other follow-up on that. You mentioned that you've got 2 well locations in mind at the moment to drill in the second half of the year. Are you able to give any details around what kind of prospect sizes you're seeing, what kind of targets you're looking to go after?
Richard Herbert: Anish, we're not quite in a position to start talking about specific drilling locations, prospect sizes, et cetera. We're working with our partner, CGX, to define the drilling program, and there's actually going to be partner meetings in Houston next week where I think a lot of this will get decided. But it's, but we don't have any specific data to talk about at this stage.