Karoon Energy Ltd has announced the Stena Forth drillship has commenced the drilling of the Marina-1 exploration well located in Block Z-38 Tumbes Basin, Peru. The wholly owned, Karoon subsidiary, KEI (Peru Z-38) Sucursal del Peru is the operator and has a 40% net interest in Block Z-38.
The drilling operation is estimated to take 30 days and shall drill to approximately 3000 m subsea. The Stena Forth Drillship is a state-of-the-art drillship with an exceptional record of drilling wells worldwide, successfully and incident free. The Stena Forth was chosen because it meets and exceeds all engineering, health, safety and environmental requirements of Karoon, its joint venture partners together with the Peruvian government regulatory requirements.
The Marina prospect has a gross prospective resource best estimate of 256 million bbl of oil (net to Karoon 102 million bbl) as previously announced in the “Resources Update” dated 8 May 2018. Marina Prospect, Block Z-38 Tumbes Basin Peru
The Marina prospect comprises a large fault bounded structure with targets at multiple levels from 900 m subsea to 3000 m. The targets are in the Tertiary Pliocene La Cruz to Cardalitos formations.
The structures are well defined by 3D seismic. Nearby hydrocarbon seeps demonstrate that migrating hydrocarbons are present, supported by seismic AVO anomalies indicative of trapped oil at Marina.
Karoon’s wholly owned subsidiary, KEI (Peru Z-38) Sucursal del Peru, owns a 40% operating equity interest in the Blocks with Tullow Oil Limited (LSE:TLW)) holding 35% and Pitkin Petroleum holding the remaining 25% equity interest.