Tullow Oil Plans To Drill First Guyana Well In Third Quarter Of 2019

LONDON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Tullow Oil plans to drill its first well in the much-watched Guyana offshore basin in the third quarter of next year in its Orinduik licence bordering discoveries by Exxon, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

Exxon and U.S. partner Hess Corp have said that more than 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent could be recovered from the Stabroek block off Guyana, which is part of one of the world's biggest oil discoveries in the past decade.

Tullow owns 60 percent and Eco Atlantic Oil and Gas 40 percent in Orinduik. Total has an option to buy 25 percent from Eco.

"Hammerhead-1 is located approximately 7 km from the Orinduik licence boundary ... Hammerhead-1 found material oil in turbidite channel systems," the Tullow spokesman said of a recent Exxon discovery in the Stabroek block.

"Our 3D seismic (data), which includes Hammerhead, shows that these channel systems extend up-dip (?) into the Orinduik licence. We will now pick the well location for our first well on this licence and remain on track for drilling that well in the third quarter of 2019."

Tullow also has a 37.5 percent stake in the Kanuku licence offshore Guyana alongside Repsol and Total. It also owns stakes in two blocks off Guyana's neighbour Suriname, where its partners are Ratio, Equinor and Noble.

(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)