Tullow Oil said more oil discovered off Guyana

The London-listed Irish explorer Tullow Oil said it had made a second oil discovery off the coast of Guyana.

It follows a “substantial and high-value oil discovery” by Tullow Oil in its Jethro-1 exploration well, in the same area of Guyana, back in August.

Exploration director Angus McCoss said: “I am very pleased that we have made back-to-back discoveries in Guyana and successfully opened a new, shallower play in the upper tertiary age of the Guyana basin with our second well. The Joe-1 discovery and its surrounding prospects represent another area of significant potential in the Orinduik Block, and we are greatly looking forward to the next phase of the programme as we continue to unlock the multibillion-barrel potential of this acreage.”

Davy Stockbrokers said the findings supported “an upbeat assessment of Tullow’s exploration package in the Guyana area, and “bodes well for the appraisal programmes expected to follow on and the value contribution of the licence”.

The new Joe-1 exploration well was drilled by the Stena Forth drillship, and evaluation of logging and sampling data confirmed that Joe-1 encountered 14m of net pay in high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs of upper tertiary age. Joe is the first oil discovery to be made in the upper tertiary, Tullow Oil said, and derisks the petroleum system in the west of the Orinduik Block, where a significant number of tertiary and cretaceous age prospects have been identified.

The explorer said, along with its partners, it will now evaluate data from the Joe-1 discovery alongside data from the Jethro-1 discovery announced in August and await the outcome of the Carapa well to determine the optimal follow-on exploration and appraisal programme.