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The licence is large and has the potential to prove a new petroleum province, in area it is equivalent to the UK and Netherlands Southern North Sea. The country has the advantage of belonging to the European Union. As an ex-colonial territory of France, it provides some political stability coupled with a rare chance to explore a basin where only two wells have previously been drilled offshore. Through its 50% holding in Northpet Investments Limited, Northern holds 1.25% of the equity in the Guyane Exclusive Exploration Licence. The financial exposure to Northern is modest, given the interest held, but the upside with success could be substantial and offers a very attractive reward to risk profile.
Guyane – Tullow Oil Identifies Leads
Similar to its Discoveries in Ghana
Geophysical interpretation work undertaken by Tullow Oil Plc as operator during 2008 has highlighted leads in the southeast of the licence with significant similarities to the recent Cretaceous oil discoveries of Jubilee, Odum and Tweneboa made by Tullow in Ghana. The Jubilee field has a resource potential of over a billion barrels and booked reserves of 490 million barrels. During Cretaceous times these areas were in close proximity before the opening of the Atlantic and therefore can be expected to have similar geology. The Guyane 2D seismic data acquired to date has demonstrated the presence of geological features analogous to those proven productive offshore Ghana. Given this encouragement a large 2,500km² 3D seismic survey is being acquired during 2009 over the most interesting seismic amplitude anomalies identified from the existing 2D seismic data.
The billion barrel potential of the giant Matamata prospect has been further enhanced by recently completed basin modelling work. Matamata will be ranked against any prospects identified on the new 3D seismic to decide which prospect to drill first. Tullow is planning to find partners to dilute its high equity position of 97.5% to participate in the drilling and we expect that a well will be drilled in 2010.
Further information
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