Qatar Petroleum, Total forms new company to control shares iKaieteur News – The Guyana Government has signed off on the transfer of share ownership, with regards to the ongoing working interests (WI) in the Orinduik Oil Block in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The development comes, as the Joint Venture partners for the Orinduik Block offshore Guyana have had their Petroleum Prospecting Licences renewed.
That agreement had been initially inked on January 14, 2016 with the Guyana Government.
The share ownership transfers, according to Eco Atlantic, provided final approval for the transfer of the Total Exploration and Production Guyana’s 25 percent working interest in the Orinduik Petroleum Agreement, to a new company, jointly owned by Total (60 percent) and Qatar Petroleum (40 percent), named TOQAP Guyana BV (TOQAP).
Accordingly, the Joint Venture partners now comprise Eco Atlantic (15 percent WI), Tullow Guyana BV (the operator, 60 percent) and TOQAP (25 percent).
According to a public statement by Eco Atlantic, the First Renewal Period sees the JV Partners maintain control of the licence through to January 13, 2023 and until the second renewal period.
Colin Kinley, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Eco Atlantic, in his remarks providing an update said, “…as a group, the JV Partners continue with advanced reprocessing of the geophysical data, in combination with the additional information obtained from regional drilling results, and further evaluation of the Joe and Jethro discoveries.
The partnership, he said, is focused on its multiple light sweet oil prospects on the Orinduik Block, and “we are high-grading candidates for the next drilling programme, with the Operator expected to select targets later this year. “
According to Kinley, “we will update the market on further drilling plans in due course on our opportunity and prospects in this prolific oil basin” and added “we very much appreciate the Government of Guyana’s continued support of our exploration and expanding partnership on the Orinduik Block.”
Eco Atlantic holds an interest in the 1,800 square kilometer Orinduik offshore block in close proximity to the Exxon Mobil Corporation’s recently announced “Liza” discovery holding multi million barrels of oil.
The Orinduik Block is estimated to hold some 5.1 billion barrels of oil-equivalent, according to a recent Competent Persons Report contracted by Eco Atlantic Oil and Gas.
The firm, Gustavson Associates LLC, conducted the report, updating the gross prospective resource previously estimated in March 2019 to be four billion barrels of oil-equivalent.
Two discoveries have been made so far in the Block, Jethro-1 and Joe-1.
The Jethro-1 well is estimated to hold 208.3 million barrels of oil-equivalent, while the Joe-1 well is estimated to have 104.4 million oil-equivalent barrels.
These have been reported as heavy oil finds, which are more challenging to produce.
Those two finds had formed part of the Block’s tertiary leads, which now amount to an estimated 1.2 billion oil-equivalent barrels.
The joint venture partners have since identified some 22 prospects on the Orinduik Block including 11 leads in the Upper Cretaceous horizon, with two of the targets in that horizon identified to have in excess of 725 million oil-equivalent barrels.
They are the Amaila/Kumaka and Iatuk-D, which have 31.5 percent and 31.2 percent possibility of success, respectively. The cretaceous leads amount to an estimated 3.9 billion barrels of oil-equivalent.