RE:Long Player says the Corentyne Block is lost!Yes, This afternoon, I was actually chatting with my buddy, retired deepwater drilling engineer and company man for Chevron, about this.
He said that no deepwater drilling contractor would allow any well testing in open hole. The hole section to be tested has to be cased. Well testing a drilled and cased hole can run into costs that would approach $100 million per appraisal well.
He pointed out that Wei-1 was supposed to be an exploration/appraisal well with well design such that the well could be tested (I think that they TD'd with 12 1/4 inch hole) but was never tested speaks to the fact that the JV doesn't have enough cash. But that's not to say that there's nothing worth testing.