Jethro-1 delivers the goods for Tullow

The Jethro-1 well, drilled in the Orinduik block, offshore Guyana, has delivered for Tullow Oil, with chief executive Paul McDade saying the prospect could hold more than 100 million barrels of recoverable oil, subject to appraisal.

Commenting on the discovery, Julie Wilson, director, global exploration, at Wood Mackenzie, said: “This is the first discovery by an operator other than ExxonMobil in the deep waters of the Guyana basin.

“Jethro-1 provides further evidence that the Guyana basin is a world-class petroleum province with multiple play types that hold commercially-viable volumes.”

She said Tullow targeted Lower Tertiary formations, and the well encountered a high-quality reservoir, which will help to keep down development costs.

She added: “The Orinduik block is up-dip of ExxonMobil’s Stabroek block. Orinduik’s prospects are in channel sands, rather than basin floor fans. This means that they will individually be smaller in size – a couple of hundred million barrels of oil equivalent rather than billion-plus.

 “Jethro-1 is analogous to ExxonMobil’s Hammerhead discovery, also in the Tertiary, which extends into Tullow’s Orinduik block.”

Ms Wilson added that Tullow has a track record of delivering fast-track offshore projects, notably the Jubilee development, offshore Ghana.

“Today’s announcement comes 12 years after the Jubilee discovery, made in the West African Transform Margin. Tullow is finally rewarded for its belief that the margin is mirrored on the Latin American side of the Atlantic,” she said.

Tullow first tried to prove this with the Zaedyus discovery, offshore French Guiana. Zaedyus proved the petroleum system was in place but the volumes were too small to be commercially viable.