ExxonMobil plans three well campaign on suspiciously awarded Canje block

Even as it continues to lay the groundwork for two critical projects to pump thousands of barrels of oil out of the Stabroek block, American oil giant, ExxonMobil, still remains laser focused on executing an aggressive exploration campaign for its other offshore concession called Canje.

In fact, the oil king has already begun spudding the Bulletwood-1 prospect, which is reported to have a channel complex that is similar to the Liza geology in the Stabroek concession. This prospect will target approximately 500 million barrels of oil equivalent resources. The next two wells on the Canje block will target Sapote-1 in the east of the block and Jabillo-1 in the northwest of the block, which is reported as a billionbarrel class basin floor turbidite fan.

Kaieteur News understands that back in 2016, ExxonMobil had acquired in excess of 6,100 km2 of 3D seismic on the Canje block. Subsequent processing and interpretation of this dataset were used to define a substantial prospect inventory on the block with the three prospects (Bulletwood, Jabillo, and Sapote) high graded as the most promising potential targets for the initial drilling campaign. Even though a 2018 DeGoyler McNaughton Competent Persons Report on the Canje block remains unpublished, the offshore concession is reported to contain more than a dozen prospects in the Canje portion of the Liza play fairway, representing more than 10 billion barrels of prospective recoverable oil resources, with a number of the prospects exhibiting the same DHI (Direct Hydrocarbon Indicator) characteristics as the neighbouring Stabroek discoveries.

In a series titled ‘The Fleecing of Guyana,’ Kaieteur News exposed in great detail, the suspicious circumstances that led to the giveaway of the block to industry unknowns by the PPP/C regime.

In the comprehensive series, this newspaper noted that the Canje Block was awarded by the Donald Ramotar administration on March 4, 2015, days before the elections, to local company, Mid Atlantic Oil and Gas, which was incorporated in 2013 by Hewley Nelson, a management professional and Nicholas Chuck-A-Sang, a geologist. The former has served on several public boards, including on the board of the Marriot Hotel’s parent company, Atlantic Hotel Incorporated. He was appointed to that post in 2017 by the David Granger administration. This newspaper also found that Nelson would dedicate many years of service at the Hand-in-Hand Trust Corporation Inc., even serving as its General Manager. Chuck-A-Sang, a petroleum engineer currently serves at the Department of Energy, and has a long history of service with the Government, dating back to the early 1990s.

Dr. Edris Kamal Dookie, who was not officially a Director at the time the company received the block, came on later and is the sole shareholder.

Kaieteur News would have been at the forefront of exposing as well, that MidAtlantic had sold away shares in the block, a mere six weeks after it received it. This sale was executed with JHI Associates Inc., a private, Ontario-registered, company. It was set up in 2014, to focus on oil exploration opportunities in the emerging Guyana-Suriname Basin.

The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) has warned on several occasions that the quick flipping of blocks without having done substantial work, is a major red flag that should require inquiry into possible corruption.

It is notable that the principals of JHI and Mid-Atlantic, Edris Dookie, and the Canadian John Cullen had co-founded CGX in 1996. That company has benefitted from several licences, but was never successful in finding oil. Both men have left CGX.

Exxon only farmed into the Canje in February 2016, becoming the operator with 35 percent of the shares later that year. The sum Exxon paid for its share is unknown. In February of 2018, JHI and MidAtlantic also struck a deal with Total, which resulted in Total having a 35 percent stake.

(Kaieteur News)