Guyana still to do independent review of oil and gas resources

Jan 27, 2021 News

One Year Later…

Kaieteur News – In late 2019, the Energy Department had announced that it would be procuring a consultant to conduct a 2D, 3D seismic survey offshore Guyana so that a better understanding can be had of the nation’s oil and gas potential. But more than a year later, this exercise is yet to kick start.
The survey was seen as a critical as it would help to determine whether the large acreage Guyana offers for offshore exploration and subsequent development, should be kept the same size or reduced. The Energy Department had even stressed that the survey was vital as it would help Guyana offer packages that would retain more value than before.
While Guyana continues to move at a snail’s pace on this matter, its continental neighbours are wasting no time in using the news of its discoveries to propel more defined studies. In fact, a consultancy called Brazil Petroleum Studies (BPS), recently conducted an assessment to ascertain if it also holds the offshore potential that is being harnessed in Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
According to BPS, it recently completed an integrated petroleum system study of the Brazilian Equatorial Margin. It said that the results clearly show that the plays, associated elements, processes of the petroleum systems identified in Guyana and Suriname are identical to those present in the Foz do Amazonas and Para-Maranhão basins. These two basins are located in ultra-deep waters near the Brazilian Equatorial Margin.
The discoveries that are of particular interest to BPS and which motivated the latest assessment include the giant deep-water Liza, Payara, Turbot, Ranger, Liza deep, Snoek, Pacora, Longtail, Hammerhead, Pluma, Tilapia and Haimara fields in Guyana; as well as the Maka and Sapakara fields (discovered by Apache in Suriname) and the Zaedyus field (discovered by Tullow in French Guiana).
BPS went on to note that the study of the Equatorial Margin went far beyond conventional seismic and well-data mapping by applying state-of-the-art basin modeling and Advanced Geochemistry Technology (AGT) to oil samples recovered in the Foz do Amazonas and Para-Maranhão basins.
Taking the findings of the study into consideration, along with the new state-of-the-art 2D seismic data acquired by TGS in the Foz do Amazonas and Para-Maranhão basins, BPS said it is left to conclude that “the region could be a sleeping supergiant deep-water hydrocarbon frontier.”
It should be noted that the said data even supported the incorporation of the offshore concessions into the list of approved 92 exploration and production blocks that Brazil had put up for sale in its 17th bid round. They were subsequently removed due to environmental concerns. (See link for more details: https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/coal/010721-brazils-cnpe-approves-92-offshore-blocks-for-17th-bid-round-anp).