Drillship was at Banjo well site for maintenance, not to set up for oil production- MARAD

Jan 05, 2025 News

Kaieteur News- The Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) this week clarified that the Noble Tom Madden drillship was at the Banjo Well Site in the Stabroek Block for maintenance and not for developmental drilling purposes, as was previously mentioned in a Notice published by the agency.

It explained, “The Maritime Administration Department published Notice to Mariners 164 of 2024 on December 12, 2024, which erroneously stated ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) “will continue developmental drilling operations at the Banjo-1 well site within the Stabroek Block of Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone.”

Drillship was at Banjo well site for maintenance, not to set up for oil production- MARAD

A map of the Banjo-1 Well Site that was published by MARAD

MARAD said the correct information provided by Exxon indicated that “the MODU Noble Tom Madden is estimated to arrive at the Banjo-1 well site. This is for continuous maintenance operations on the Noble Tom Madden drillship within the Stabroek Block of the Guyana Maritime Zone for ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) and is estimated to conclude on or around December 31, 2024.”

According to the Maritime Department, the vessel departed the area on December 23, 2024; thus, the notice was ceased. MARAD apologized to all stakeholders for the error and any resulting inconvenience.

Kaieteur News reported last week, in accordance with the misleading notice, that Exxon was conducting developmental drilling at the site, located approximately 89.5 nautical miles or 165.75 kilometres off the coast of Guyana with an area of 0.29 square nautical miles or one square kilometre.

Notably, developmental drilling is conducted after exploration drilling. It is conducted to develop a field with proven reserves.

Banjo was however never declared by the oil company as a commercial discovery. In fact, in 2022, one of the Stabroek Block partners said in a public statement, “The Banjo-1 exploration well was drilled earlier in the third quarter and did not encounter commercial quantities of hydrocarbons.”

This therefore gave rise to speculation about the nature of Exxon’s operations in Guyana. Following the publication of the article, the company noted that the advertisement was mistakenly published.

Before Exxon moves to production, the company is required to follow the regulatory process that involves obtaining an environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a licence to operate from the Government of Guyana- none of which have been granted, or at least made public.

So far, Exxon has received approval for six offshore developments. Already, three projects are producing oil in the Stabroek Block, which is estimated to hold more than 11 billion barrels of oil. The Liza One, Liza Two and Payara projects are producing a daily average of 660,000 barrels per day. ExxonMobil is aiming to increase the country’s daily capacity to 1.7 million barrels by 2030.

(Drillship was at Banjo well site for maintenance, not to set up for oil production- MARAD )

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Banjo, drill, maintenance, oil, production

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