U.S. headquartered oil and gas company Kosmos Energy said on Wednesday it will abandon an offshore well in Suriname because it failed to find oil, the second well it plugged in the region in recent months for the same reason.
Kosmos said the Pontoenoe-1 exploration well in Block 42 offshore Suriname was designed to test late Cretaceous reservoirs in a stratigraphic trap charged from oil mature Albian and Cenomanian-Turonian source kitchens. The well is located offshore Suriname approximately 280 kilometers northwest of Paramaribo in approximately 2,497 meters of water and has been drilled to a total depth of approximately 6,194 meters.
Full testing revealed no commercial hydrocarbons. High-quality reservoir was encountered, but the primary exploration objective proved to be water bearing. Kosmos believes there was evidence of a working source kitchen and the prospect failed due to a lack of trap.
The well will be plugged and abandoned and the well results integrated into the ongoing evaluation of the remaining prospectivity in Kosmos’ acreage position.
Andrew G. Inglis, Kosmos chairman and CEO, said, “We are in the early stages of exploring the emerging Suriname-Guyana basin, and given the indications of a mature source, quality cretaceous reservoir, and the independent nature of the prospectivity we believe there is significant remaining potential in Block 42. Our current plan is to test the next prospect in 2020.”
Kosmos holds rights in the Block 42 contract area under a production sharing contract with the Government of Suriname’s Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname N.V. The block ranges in water depth between approximately 2,000 and 2,500 meters and covers an area of over 6,000 square kilometers gross. Kosmos (33.3 percent) is the exploration operator of Block 42 and is joined by its partners Hess (33.3 percent) and Chevron (33.3 percent).
Kosmos now expects 2018 capital expenditures to be about $400 million.