ExxonMobil has made its ninth discovery offshore Guyana at the Hammerhead-1 well, marking its fifth discovery on the Stabroek Block in the past year and proving a new play concept for potential development.
Hammerhead-1 encountered approximately 197 feet of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoir. The well was safely drilled to 13,862 feet depth in 3,773 feet of water.
Hammerhead-1 is located approximately 13 miles southwest of the Liza-1 well and follows previous discoveries on the Stabroek Block at Liza, Liza Deep, Payara, Snoek, Turbot, Ranger, Pacora and Longtail. Those previous discoveries led to the announcement of an estimated recoverable resource of more than 4 billion oil-equivalent barrels discovered to date, and the potential for up to five floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels producing more than 750,000 barrels per day by 2025.
There is potential for additional production from significant undrilled targets and plans for rapid exploration and appraisal drilling. A second exploration vessel, the Noble Tom Madden, is due to arrive in Guyana in October to accelerate exploration of high potential opportunities and will commence drilling at the Pluma prospect approximately 17 miles from Turbot.
Liza Phase 1, which is expected to begin producing oil by early 2020, will use the Liza Destiny FPSO vessel to produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day. Pending government and regulatory approvals, Phase 2 is targeted for sanctioning by the end of this year. A third development, Payara, will target sanctioning in 2019.
