CGX oil drilling rig due here next month
THE CGX Energy oil group has announced that R&B Falcon's C.E. Thornton jack-up drilling rig, which has been contracted to drill its Eagle target in Guyana, is scheduled to depart Italy mid-month and will arrive in Trinidad in mid-May. In Trinidad, the rig will undergo minor refitting and reach the Eagle prospect in late May/early June. CGX had announced a drilling contract with R & B Falcon Corporation of Houston, Texas, subject to rig inspection. The rig inspection was completed and the formal drilling contract has been finalised, the firm said. The estimated cost of the drill hole is US$7.3M. On arrival, its jack-up legs will be set on the ocean floor in about 270 feet of water. Under the current drilling plan, it is expected to take 45 days to drill and case to CGX's target depth of 12,500 feet, the firm said. A further five days are scheduled for testing if electrical well-logging of the target zone is encouraging. On March 20 last, CGX announced the closing of a US$8.75M gross (US$8.1M net) financing increasing its working capital plus pre-paid deposits to US$11M. Mr Warren Workman, Vice President, Exploration, said in a company release: "The Eagle target was initially identified on vintage seismic surveys that had been shot by prior explorers in the region. "Using our May 1999 seismic survey, amplitude mapping and Amplitude vs Offset ("AVO") analysis have confirmed two turbidite fan features, Eagle and Wishbone West, which are potentially giant fields." He said Eagle is the largest - a 60,000 acre feature with 29,000 acres above an apparent hydrocarbon/water contact, a maximum 750 feet of gross thickness and with 1,700 feet of vertical column. "It is located 10 km from the Shell Abary #1 well drilled in 1974, that tested significant gas in the mud logs and 34.7 API crude from a thin formation of similar age to our target at Eagle", he said. CGX holds a 100 per cent interest in a 15,464 sq km (3,800,000 acre) exploration licence in Guyana. Since 1997, Guyana has had one of the top quartile to encourage drilling in an under-explored basin. The CGX exploration licence is surrounded by: Exxon to the north, the Shell/Burlington/Total/Korean National Oil joint venture to the east; and the AGIP/Repsol joint venture to the west.
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