Frontera Energy and CGX Energy have jointly cooperated to develop a promising offshore block in Guyana, with a final investment decision expected by 2026. This joint venture has the potential to become the next major oil and gas exploration project in the country, following the success of the Exxon Mobil-led consortium.
This group began production in 2019 and is currently producing around 400,000 barrels per day (bbl/d).
If a positive final investment decision is made, the consortium will move forward with topside construction for a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, as well as drilling and subsea architecture.
To further develop the Corentyne block, Frontera and CGX have retained the services of US investment banking firm Houlihan Lokey. They will be exploring options for potential partnerships to help bring this project to fruition.
Both companies have a strong presence in the region, with exploration licenses for several large blocks in Guyana. However, after discussions with the government, they have agreed to focus on the Corentyne block. This decision was made in 2022, and the appraisal of the entire area is expected to be finished by 2025.
Guyana recently received bids from international and local firms for eight new blocks to be awarded soon.
The joint venture retained Subsea Integration Alliance (SIA), an oilfield services group owned by SLB’s OneSubsea and Subsea7, to complete a conceptual field development plan for Corentyne, according to Reuters.
According to Mark Zoback of CGX’s board of directors, the timeline for Corentyne’s development comes after the firms’ analysis of data from the Wei-1 exploration well, where they discovered medium-sweet oil, but they have not yet estimated the area’s full potential.
Notably, the venture has identified gross prospective resources of between 514 million and 628 million barrels of oil and gas in the Maastrichtian horizons alone and additional potential in the deeper Campanian and Santonian horizons.
Moreover, Frontera and CGX believe that the rock quality discovered in the Maastrichtian horizon is analogous to that reported in Exxon’s Liza discovery.
