Jan 15 | 2021
(Americas) ‘Significant’ Offshore Discovery
Oil and gas exploration firms Total and and Apache have announced a "significant" discovery off the coast of Suriname.
The new find was achieved in water depth of about 725 meters at the Keskesi East-1 well, in Block 58 in the coastal Atlantic waters of Suriname.
“We are delighted to announce this new discovery, which confirms this first exploration campaign as a full success and adds to the proven resource base” said Kevin McLachlan, senior vice president exploration at Total.
Fourth Discovery
The discovery is expected to drive renewed breakbulk demand in the small state, as the partners ramp up operations to capitalize on the resource and expand upstream exploration.
Located close to the border with the offshore waters of neighboring Guyana in the northeast of South America, Block 58 is the latest in a series of finds in the region and follows previous discoveries at Maka Central, Sapakara West and Kwaskwasi in 2020.
The announcement follows Total assuming operatorship of Block 58 at the start of January 2021, with a 50 percent working interest.
Second Exploration Campaign
The partners are commencing the next phase of development in small state in the northeast of South America, while simultaneously progressing exploration work in the region to determine the true scale of the new deposits.
“We are excited, as new operator of the block, to start the appraisal operations designed to characterize the 2020 discoveries, while in parallel start a second exploration campaign on this prolific block in 2021,” McLachlan added.
Headquartered in Courbevoie, France, Total is a multinational integrated oil and gas company and one of the seven "Supermajor" oil companies in the world.
Neocomian Aged Targets
The firm reported that test well production was comprised of 58 meters net black oil, volatile oil, and gas in good quality Campano-Maastrichtian reservoirs. A further 5 meters of net volatile oil pay in Santonian reservoirs was discovered, where wireline logging had been performed.
The Block 58 test well encountered a net pay of 63 meters of hydrocarbons and drilling is now ongoing for deeper Neocomian aged targets.
Upon completion of the operations on Keskesi East-1, the Noble Sam Croft drillship will be released. The International Energy Agency, estimates that Suriname has more than 800 kilotonnes equivalent of oil reserves, and cites the country and neighboring Guyana as emerging players in deepwater production.
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