Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas Ltd (CVE:EOG LON:ECO) and partner Tullow Oil have significantly increased the scale of its 3D seismic acquisition at Orinduik, offshore Guyana, after major discoveries nearby by Exxon.
Originally a 1,000km 3D survey was planned but Eco and partner Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) have now agreed to increase this to the entire block area, or 2,550km, fully overlapping current prospective 2D leads and downdip trends.
Schlumberger Guyana will carry out the survey. which is expected to start in the next two weeks.
Eco Atlantic holds a 40% working interest in Orinduik, while Tullow is the operator with a 60% stake.
The Orinduik Block is located up dip and just a few kilometres from Exxon's recent Liza and Payara discoveries confirming with in excess of 1.5bn barrels of recoverable oil.
Tullow will carry Eco’s share of the originally proposed 1,000 sq km of the survey, at a cap of US$1.25mm, with the balance of the program being funded by both parties on a pro-rata basis.
Colin Kinley, Eco’s chief operating officer, said: In addition to de-risking the existing two defined targets, the survey will hopefully generate additional targets on the Orinduik Block, thereby increasing the prospective oil in place and adding leads for future work programs.
We were keenly interested in this region of the Guyana-Suriname Basin even prior to Exxon's highly successful drilling program, applying for the Orinduik block in 2014 because of its highly prospective Cretaceous canyon and fan plays.
We have since been excited to see Exxon continue to successfully prove out the region in its ongoing drilling program and look forward to results from our own 3D survey, which are expected to come in the next couple of months".
"The 2D interpretation has led to at least two significant reservoir leads on the Orinduik block that both we and Tullow believe may hold significant oil comparable to the world class regional discoveries identified by Exxon.
“Eco Atlantic expects to confirm a number of drilling targets with this increased 3D Survey, ahead of drilling of the first well in Orinduik, hopefully in 2018."