Hess acquiring stake in Kaieteur oil block

Hess Guyana Exploration Limited is acquiring a 15 percent interest in the Kaieteur block, offshore Guyana.

Hess is already in a partnership with Exxon’s subsidiary here and CNOOC in the adjacent Stabroek block, where seven major oil discoveries have been made made.

“Hess Guyana (Block B) Exploration Limited had reached agreement with Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (ExxonMobil) to acquire a 15 percent participating interest in the Kaieteur block, offshore Guyana. The Cooperative Republic of Guyana has provided Hess and ExxonMobil an instrument detailing the transfer of interest, which has been completed,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.

“Our interest in the Kaieteur block extends our company’s already significant acreage position in the prolific GuyanaSuriname Basin, which has delivered seven world class oil discoveries to date,” said Chief Executive Officer John Hess in the statement. “We look forward to working with our partners and the Government of Guyana to evaluate the potential of this highly prospective acreage,” he added.

Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman told Stabroek News on Thursday that government had given approval to the “farming in” deal, which he noted is quite common in the industry.

Hess said the work programme in 2018 will include processing and interpretation of approximately 5,700 square kilometers of 3D seismic data and evaluation of a future drilling programme.

This newspaper understands that the operations will be just east of the location of Anadarko’s Roraima block and seaward of the Stabroek block, just slightly west of where Exxon’s Liza discovery is located.

In 2013, Anadarko had been engaged in extensive work prior to drilling in Guyana’s western waters when a research vessel doing studies on its behalf was seized by the Venezuelan navy. Although the US petroleum company visited in 2015 and said that it still had interest in drilling, its works here have ground to a halt.

The Kaieteur block is located approximately 155 miles (approximately 250 kilometers) offshore the coast of Guyana in ultra-deepwater north, and it is an estimated 3.3 million acres (approximately 13,535 square kilometers). Hess said the area is equivalent in size to more than 580 deep-water blocks in the Gulf of Mexico.

Exxon’s subsidiary had acquired a 50% stake in the Kaieteur block from Ratio in 2016 and became in the operating partner in the licence.