Karoon Energy has started drilling at its 256 million barrel prospect Marina-1 offshore Peru using the Stena Forth drillship.
Karoon said Monday that the drilling operation at the Block Z‐38 in Peru's Tumbes Basin would take 30 days. Tullow, Karoon's partner in the project, earlier this month said the operation would take 60 days.
The Marina prospect has a gross prospective resource best estimate of 256 million barrels of oil (net to Karoon 102 million barrels).
The prospect comprises a large fault-bounded structure with targets at multiple levels from 900m subsea to 3000m.
The targets are in the Tertiary Pliocene La Cruz to Cardalitos formations.
According to Karoon, the structures are well defined by 3D seismic, and nearby hydrocarbon seeps demonstrate that migrating hydrocarbons are present, supported by seismic AVO anomalies indicative of trapped oil at Marina.