According to an advisory that was published by the Maritime Administration Department, the Stena Carron drillship has been pulled from its drilling programme on the Stabroek Block which is operated by ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL).
The Stena Carron was scheduled to do drilling work at the Yellowtail-2 well site but travel restrictions here and globally as a result of the coronavirus have affected the pace at which operators can conduct their operations
In an invited comment, ExxonMobil’s Public Relations and Government Affairs advisor, Janelle Persaud disclosed that ExxonMobil Guyana is working to limit the disruption of the coronavirus to its operations while noting that plans have been made to adjust drilling activities given current travel restrictions. She declined to provide details on the adjustments.
Persaud would only add, “…We continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely and will adjust operations as necessary with safety and the protection of the environment as priorities.”
The challenges being faced by ExxonMobil were also reported on by Upstream Online. The international online news outfit said that ExxonMobil is also facing a difficult decision on whether to go ahead with planned exploration wells on the Canje and Kaieteur block in the second quarter of 2020.
Upstream said it learned that ExxonMobil had lined up the drillship Noble Tom Madden to drill the Bulletwood prospect at a water depth of 2800 metres in the Canje block and the drillship Stena Carron for the Tanager prospect in 2900 metres of water on the Kaieteur block.
Upstream said that Tanager would be the deeper of the two, with a target total depth of 8300 metres, right down to the source rock. As for Bulletwood, Upstream understands that ExxonMobil will be focusing principally on a confined channel in the Upper Cretaceous, though there have been suggestions that the well could also probe secondary Lower Tertiary and deeper Lower Cretaceous targets.
