London-listed oil and gas exploration and production firm Tullow Oil expects to hire an offshore drilling rig soon for drilling operation in Suriname.
The company said Monday that the drilling of the Goliathberg-Voltzberg North prospect (GVN-1) in the offshore Block 47 is now planned for the first quarter of 2021.
"A rig is expected to be contracted shortly for this Upper Cretaceous prospect," Tullow Oil said Wednesday.
Tullow had previously expected to spud the well in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to its Annual Report 2019 released back in March.
In the annual report for 2019, Tullow said the well would test dual targets in the Cretaceous turbidite play in approximately 1,900 meters of water.
Tullow got hold of the Block 47 - a 2,369 sq km deepwater exploration license - in Suriname back in 2010.
The company has previously said that the block had the potential to extend the Jubilee play from West Africa across the Atlantic to Suriname.
Back in 2017, Tullow drilled the Araku-1 exploration well in Suriname in Block 54. The well, drilled to a total depth of 2,685 meters using the Noble Bob Douglas drillship, came up dry.
Elsewhere in Suriname, Malaysian oil and gas giant Petronas has recently hired a Maersk Drilling rig to drill one well in Block 52 offshore Suriname later this year.
Most notably, the U.S. oil firm Apache has so far this year announced two major discoveries off the South American country's northern coast - Maka Central in January and Sapakara West in April.