Westmount Energy buys stake in JHI Associates

The AIM-traded firm described JHI as a private, Ontario-registered company founded in 2014, focussed on oil exploration opportunities in the emerging Guyana-Suriname Basin.

It said the company's main asset was a 17.5% carried interest in the Canje Block, covering more than 4,800 square kilometres, offshore Guyana.

The block is located adjacent to, and in the same geologic basin as, the Stabroek Block, which had delivered 18 “substantial” oil discoveries since 2015, with reported discovered recoverable resources of around nine billion oil-equivalent barrels to date.

“ExxonMobil, which is the operator of both blocks, acquired in excess of 6,100 square kilometres of 3D seismic on the Canje Block in 2016,” the Westmount board said in its statement.

“Subsequent processing and interpretation of this dataset has been used to define a substantial prospect inventory on the block with three prospects high-graded as potential targets for the initial drilling campaign.”

It said that, as a result of a 2018 farm-out to Total, JHI was carried for the drilling of up to four wells and was funded for the drilling of additional wells.

“Drilling operations at the first well in the Canje drilling campaign, Bulletwood-1, are ongoing since the start of the year with completion of the well anticipated around mid-to-late February.

“Additional Canje drilling will follow-on in the first half of 2021.”

Following the purchase, Westmount held 5,651,270 shares in JHI, representing about 7.7% of the issued shares as at 13 November 2019.

At 1004 GMT, shares in Westmount Energy were down 1.46% at 20.2p.