Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas, the oil and gas exploration company with licences in the proven oil province of Guyana and the highly prospective basins of Namibia, today provides an operational update on the Group's activities.

Map source: Eco Atlantic

Eco Atlantic's Orinduik petroleum block offshore Guyana has continued to advance in its maturity to the selection of further drilling prospects. Eco's partners in the Orinduik Block; Tullow Guyana BV - Operator (60% W.I.) and TOQAP Guyana BV, the Total/Qatar JV (25% W.I.) (together the "JV"), are confident in the technical advancement and scheduled progression towards drilling target selection in Q3 of 2021. The seismic reprocessing will be completed this summer, target selection is committed to follow by the JV and Eco is ready and prepared to drill a well in 2022, subject to approval by the JV. The JV did not solicit an extension of time as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and Eco continues to seek to accelerate progress towards the drilling of a third well on the Orinduik Block.

Tullow, supported by the technical teams of Eco Atlantic and TOQAP, has significantly advanced the exploration of the Orinduik Block over the past 18 months. In-depth analysis of the Joe and Jethro wells, which both showed significant accumulations of biodegraded heavy oil in the lower Tertiary, have been further analysed geochemically. Mapping of thermal maturation, and further basin modelling, has led to an improved understanding of this Tertiary section's presence in the northern quadrant of the block and onto the neighbouring three Hammerhead discoveries - also anticipated to be in the same resource domain.

The discovery of 27 API light oil in the Carapa well, which was drilled updip and inboard of the Orinduik Block, and within the Cretaceous section has been reviewed and focused on.  Processed and reprocessed data has recently been received by the JV and is now being reviewed for defining the next prospects to be drilled on the Orinduik Block. The Operator, Tullow, has previously released a schematic of the prospects being focussed on, on trend with the Liza and Carapa discoveries. The concurrent PSDM 3D processing, ongoing interpretation, and the multiple analogues created by the on-going discoveries throughout the basin, has progressed the team's ability for refined interpretation and AVO analysis on the new PSDM. In addition, the JV is continuing detailed mapping of the depositional channel systems through the basin. This ongoing work is supported and mapped with data from each new well regionally drilled, as well as from prior logs held. The slope channel systems, terraces and resultant ponding create reservoirs and traps that have been further identified by the high resolution reprocessing. The JV has completed significant work on the depo-systems to map hydrocarbon travel updip onto the Orinduik terraces from the same source rock feeding the reservoirs within Stabroek, which is downdip from Orinduik.

Colin Kinley, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Eco Atlantic further commented:
"The JV geoscience team will continue to focus on the regionally proven light oil Cretaceous Turbidite plays on trend with the Liza and Carapa discoveries on which we have spent a great deal of time conducting technical analysis to define the prospectivity, element by element, within this sector. We are seeing very material independent and stacked prospects and will define a ranking of these targets in the coming fall, which we are prepared and budgeted for, and (assuming JV approval) which will enable us to drill on the play in 2022."

"With the exception of Guyana, exploration activity has been slow since before the pandemic, and with capital available for drilling shifting towards renewables, the issue has been further compounded.  As the world economies begin to recover, we now expect to see demand for new exploration increasing, to bridge the deficit between renewable capacity and growing energy demand.  The Guyana / Suriname Basin is set to mature from its current 10 billion plus discovered barrels, and current 120,000 BBbls/Day, to potentially 10 FPSOs and over a million barrels of production per day, expected mid-way through this decade. This, supported by estimated breakeven prices of US$35, US$25 and US$32 per barrel recently reported by Hess in respect of discoveries on the nearby Stabroek block in the same region, proves extremely positive for the Orinduik partners and company stakeholders. This has motivated the drive to additional drilling."

KeyFacts Energy: Eco Atlantic Guyana country profile