Eco Atlantic makes progress with two recent Guyana discoveries

Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas updated the market following initial well results analysis on its two recent oil discoveries in Guyana on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said the joint venture had made two two oil discoveries in Guyana at the Jethro-1 well and the Joe-1 well in August and September respectively.

Its joint venture partners on the Orinduik Block are Tullow Guyana as operator with a 60% working interest, and Total E&P Guyana with a 25% working interest.

The board said the Jethro-1 well discovered 55 metres of net pay in high-quality sandstone reservoir in the Lower Tertiary, and Joe-1 encountered 16 metres of net pay, opening a new play type in the Upper Tertiary.

Both wells were drilled within budget, with MWD logging tool and conventional wireline, and the reservoirs were considered to be “high quality sands”, with good permeability.

Fluid samples were taken in both of the wells, and were sent for analysis by the operator.

The complete fluid analysis had not yet been received, however Eco Atlantic said initial results suggested that the samples recovered to date from Jethro-1 and Joe-1 were mobile heavy crudes, not dissimilar to the commercial heavy crudes in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, the Campos Basin in Brazil, Venezuela and Angola, with high sulphur content.

It said the partners had sought third party consultant with heavy oil development expertise to answer its technical queries and provide an initial assessment of several potential development drilling and production scenarios.

The Jethro-1 discovery had the advantage of an 8,500 PSI reservoir, which would increase drive efficiency.

It also featured a high reservoir temperature of 94 degrees Celsius; and an estimated flowing wellhead temperature of 90 degrees, which both increased oil mobility and provided an advantage at the floating production facility.

The company said it remained “optimistic” in considering the development scenarios as the project progressed.

“Having spent three decades working within the heavy oil industry, we are very encouraged by the initial analysis of these wells and good parameters that define potential pathways to recovery,” said co-founder and chief operating officer Colin Kinley.

“The fact that the oil is already hot in the reservoir, and mobile, and has high quality porous sand to travel through, helps to eliminate a great part of the conventional heavy oil challenge.”

Kinley said having pressure of 8500 PSI in a porous warm formation was an added advantage to drive the oil to the well.

“Horizontal well technology can allow excellent access to these thick fields and generally reduces the need for multiple additional wells, leading to lower development cost per barrel.

“We look forward to keeping the market appraised of our progress towards potential commercial production, further drilling in 2020 within the block and remain extremely confident about the future.”

At 1526 GMT, shares in Eco Atlantic were down 46.88% at 67.2p.