Guyana: Jaguar wildcat halted due to pressure issues

July 16, 2012
Repsol Exploracion SA will plug and abandon the Jaguar-1 exploratory well offshore Guyana before reaching the primary objective at 6,500 ft.

Repsol Exploracion SA will plug and abandon the Jaguar-1 exploratory well offshore Guyana before reaching the primary objective at 6,500 ft.

The partners unanimously agreed to cease drilling at the present depth of 4,876 m for safety reasons as the well had reached a point where pressure design limits prevented further drilling to the main objective.

Jaguar-1 is a high-pressure, high-temperature well spudded in February 2012 using the Atwood Beacon jack up. While the primary Late Cretaceous objective was not reached, samples of light oil were successfully recovered from two Late Cretaceous turbidite sands above the primary objective. At 6,500 m Jaguar-1 would have become the deepest well in the Guyana Suriname basin (OGJ Online, Feb. 9, 2012).

Repsol is operator with 15% interest in the Georgetown Petroleum Prospecting License. Others in the group are YPF Guyana Ltd. and Tullow Oil PLC with 30% each and a unit of CGX Energy Inc., Toronto, 25%.