U.S. oil major ExxonMobil has failed to find commercial quantities of oil at the Bulletwood-1 offshore well in the Canje Block, offshore Guyana.

The well, spudded on December 30, 2020, was drilled using the Stena Carron drillship and was the first well drilled in the 4,800 sq km Canje Block, which lies 180km offshore Guyana in deep to ultra-deepwater. As previously reported, Exxon has in past years struck multiple oil finds—including the now developed oil field Liza—in Guyana, but all of them in the Stabroek Block.

Previous reports described the Bulletwood-1 well as a 500 MMbbl oil prospect targeting a Liza look-alike, confined channel complex, of Late Cretaceous, Campanian, age. 

However, Westmount Energy, which owns a share in JHI, which is a partner in the Canje Block, said Thursday that the well had encountered quality reservoirs but non-commercial hydrocarbons.Credit: JHI

Westmount said that it had been informed by JHI that Bulletwood-1 "was safely drilled in 2,846 meters of water by the Stena Carron drillship to its planned target depth of 6,690 meters."

"Data collection at Bulletwood-1 confirms the presence of the Guyana-Suriname Basin petroleum system and the potential prospectivity of the Canje Block. Bulletwood-1 is the first of three wells scheduled to be drilled on the block in 2021 with the drilling of the independent prospects Jabillo-1 and Sapote-1 to follow over the coming months," Westmount added.

Westmount holds an indirect interest in the Canje Block as a result of its circa 7.7% interest in the issued share capital of JHI.  

The Canje Block is currently operated by an ExxonMobil subsidiary, Esso Exploration & Production Guyana Limited (35%), with Total (35%), JHI (17.5%), and Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas Inc. (12.5%) as partners.