CGX Energy hires Rowan rig for Guyana well
Canada’s CGX Energy has decided to use one of Rowan-owned jack-up drilling rigs for drilling operations offshore Guyana.
CGX Energy said on the 17th December that its wholly owned subsidiary, CGX Resources, had entered into a definitive rig agreement with Rowan for the provision of rig services for the drilling of the company’s Utakwaaka-1 well in its Corentyne block.
Under the terms of the agreement, the company has procured the use of an offshore jack-up drilling rig named the Ralph Coffman, which was built in 2009.
Under the contract the rig will drill one firm well in the Suriname basin in the second quarter of 2019.
According to Rowan’s latest fleet status report, the Ralph Coffman completed its contract with GulfSlope in the Gulf of Mexico in November.
Professor Suresh Narine, CGX Executive Chairman, commented: “With the announcement of a joint venture with Frontera Energy Corporation and the securing of Rowan’s Ralph Coffman offshore jack-up drilling rig, CGX is on schedule to drill Utakwaaka-1 on or before November 2019.
“The Ralph Coffman is ideally suited to our well-design and we are delighted to secure this rig at a time when exploration activity on the shelf in the Guyana basin is significantly increasing.”
Earlier in December Frontera and CGX entered into a letter of agreement to enable CGX to finance the drilling costs related to two shallow water offshore blocks in Guyana, currently 100% owned and operated by a subsidiary of CGX.
The agreement also provided financial support as a critical step in a series of transactions which CGX is seeking to undertake in order to restructure its liabilities and provide for sufficient working capital to enable it to advance its offshore exploration projects in Guyana.
Under the terms of the letter agreement, Frontera and CGX Resources agreed to enter into a farm-in joint venture agreement covering CGX’s two shallow water offshore Petroleum Prospecting Licences in Guyana, the Corentyne and Demerara Blocks.
Final approval for the farm-in is required from the Government of Guyana.
When it comes to the drilling location, the Corentyne block contains 1,125,000 net acres offshore Guyana in shallow water, adjacent to the ExxonMobil-operated prolific Stabroek block which has encountered ten discoveries since May 2015.
The Utakwaaka well is required to be drilled by the 27th November 2019 with an additional exploration well to be drilled by the 27th November 2022.
Source: Offshore Energy Today