Innovation, Integration Enable Success in Guyana-Suriname Basin
Authors: Carpenter Chris 
Published: March 2023

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This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper OTC 30946, “Innovation and Integration: Exploration History, ExxonMobil, and the Guyana-Suriname Basin,” by Audrey L. Varga, Matthew R. Chandler, and Worth B. Cotton, ExxonMobil, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2021 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission.

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Exploration in the Guyana-Suriname Basin has been a decades-long endeavor, including technical challenges and a lengthy history of drilling with no offshore success before the 2015 Liza discovery. The collection of extensive seismic data has been leveraged to enable successful exploration of multiple play types across the basin. Further data collection has enabled the operator to adopt interpretation techniques that are applied across the entire basin to characterize and understand the subsurface better.

Historical Context

The first wells drilled in the Guyana-Suriname Basin were onshore; the Rose Hall well in Guyana in 1941 first found oil shows. Rumors of oil in the region, and hopes that the prolific hydrocarbon systems present in Venezuela extended into Guyana and Suriname, led geologists from the Standard Oil Company to conduct initial reconnaissance and seismic and geochemical studies. Despite hints—in retrospect—of a favorable basin configuration and hydrocarbon presence, the decision was made to discontinue exploration activities.

Through the 1950s and early 1960s, the region saw relatively low levels of activity. In 1960, the first well was drilled offshore Guyana, and, in 1964, the first offshore well was drilled in Suriname; both were dry. In 1965, the Geological and Mining Service of Suriname found heavy oil near the present-day Calcutta Field. This led to the discovery of the Calcutta, Tambaredjo, and Weg naar Zee heavy-oil accumulations, but only a thin reservoir and heavy oil were encountered.

In 1975, Esso participated in the North Coronie-1 well in Suriname. The well found oil and gas shows, confirming the presence of immature but rich source rock that was age-equivalent to the prolific La Luna source in Venezuela. A reconnaissance 2D seismic program followed, and, in 1978, Esso drilled the first deepwater well at Demerara A2-1. This well also was dry but did find high-quality, immature source rock and weak oil and gas shows. After another disappointing well at FG-1 in French Guyana in 1978, Esso ultimately relinquished its licenses but noted the presence of excellent-quality source rocks and reservoirs.

The onshore Tambaredjo field, discovered in the 1960s, did not start production until 1982. All in all, before the Liza discovery, more than 300 wells were drilled in the basin, with more than 200 of these dry. Of these, all 60 offshore wells were dry. Why, then, did exploration continue?

Data Evolution

In the mid- to late-1990s, the Guyana deepwater acreage was completely open. The data available to the operator’s geoscientists consisted of one or two seismic lines, approximately four offshore wells, and a Suriname onshore oil sample.

At that time, a major change in global coverage and quality of satellite free-air gravity data occurred with the declassification of US military data. An internal project by the operator merged the Sandwell and Smith free-air gravity grid, available in the public domain, with Getech onshore Bouguer gravity grids to create a global gravity compilation. The operator’s researchers recognized the applicability of these data as a key technology enabler to update plate tectonic models and genetic basin analysis.