Motivated by its first oil find, United Kingdom-based oil company Tullow has commenced preparations to drill a second well within the Orinduik Block offshore Guyana.

Although an exact date was not published stating when the drilling works would commence, the Maritime Administration Department recently notified mariners of these operations as a precautionary measure when navigating the area.

According to a notice published in one of the daily newspapers, the oil company will now be heading to the Joe-1 well site to drill. This operation, which will incorporate the use of the MODU Stena Forth drillship, is expected to conclude on December 31, 2019.

The Joe is located in approximately 650 metres of water and costs approximately US$3 million to drill. A recently published report from international company Gustavson Associates had estimated that the well has a 43.2 per cent chance of success.

About two weeks ago, Tullow announced a major oil find at the Jethro-1 exploration well in the Orinduik Block, becoming the second oil company to announce an oil find offshore Guyana.

It is understood that the Jethro-1 well was drilled by the Stena Forth drillship to a total depth of 4400 metres in approximately 1350 metres of water. According to a statement from the company, evaluation of the logging data confirmed that Jethro-1 comprises high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs of Lower Tertiary age, which simply means they date back to millions of years ago.

According to the statement, the well encountered 55m of net oil pay, which indicates a recoverable oil resource estimate that exceeds Tullow’s pre-drill forecast of 100 million barrels of oil.

News of the find created waves in financial centres around the world, as well as international news outlets. Up to press time, Tullow’s shares had jumped by over 19 per cent on the London Stock Exchange. In fact, it was the biggest gainer on the index.

In addition to these sites, Tullow plans to drill another well later this year, the Carapa-1, on the adjacent Kanuku Block.

“We look forward to drilling both the Joe and Carapa prospects in our 2019 drilling campaign and the material follow-up exploration potential in both the Orinduik and Kanuku licenses,” Tullow’s Chief Executive Officer, Paul McDade was quoted as saying.

The Orinduik oil block is just a few kilometres from Exxon’s discoveries in the Liza and Payara fields.

Tullow has already promised close collaboration with locals when development starts. In fact, the company’s Head of Communications, George Cazenove, explained that the company has a positive track record in local content.