Offshore staff
LONDON -- Tullow Oil is outlining its drilling program for 2009. With around 600 MMbbl of oil of gross contingent resources discovered in the Lake Albert Rift basin offshore Uganda, the company has assigned a dedicated team to deliver a commercial development plan for the region. With many prospects still to drill, including the high-impact Ngassa-2 well, Tullow considers that further resources will be added in 2009.
The second phase of a five-well grid drilling campaign on the Uitkijk license offshore Suriname began in December 2008. Results from the initial two wells drilled are currently being reviewed and integrated into the regional database. The Uitkijk drilling program will be followed by a five-well exploration well program on the Coronie block early this year.
In French Guiana Tullow has a 97.5% interest in the Guyane Maritime license, which contains a number of high-impact, high-risk prospects and leads. In addition to the giant Matamata prospect, mapped in the northwestern part of the block, a number of additional leads, analogous to Tullow's Jubilee field in Ghana, have been identified in the southern part of the block. A new round of farm-out discussions is planned for the early part of 2009 with a view to drilling in 2010.
In the UK, the development of the Tullow-operated Wissey discovery in block 53/4d was completed in August 2008 and the field reached its full production rate of 70 MMcf/d gross during September. The Thames co-venturers have also approved the drilling of a development well in the Bure field to accelerate production and are currently preparing the drilling program for the first half of 2009 with first gas of approximately 50 MMcf/d gross targeted for October 2009.
01/21/2009
