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Guyana; 2018



In June of 2015 a homeowner named, Soownauth Gorakh, living in Demerara, Guyana, spud his No. 1 well in the backyard of his home on 4th Street. His goal was to find good water and be done with the horrible municipal water system his village had. He was miffed about the whole thing and did not get a drilling permit.


When the water well he was drilling blew out at 130 feet TVD, before any pipe could be run, the well cratered, the rig was lost and the well blew mud, water and gas a hundred feet in the air, all over everybody's houses, and down the street in front of his house.


The operator watched the entire thing from his driveway for a few hours, was questioned by local authorities, and then was promptly taken to jail for not having a permit. Evacuations were made. Damamges were estimated to be in the millions of Guyana dollars. Everybody in the neighborhood lawyered up.


The Guyana Fire Service (GFS) was the first responder on location but was unsure of how to handle the situation. As a result, the Civil Defense Commission (CDC) was called in and organized a team consisting of representatives from the EPA, Massy Gas Products, GWI, the Guyana Police Force, the GFS, and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission to monitor and assess the situation.


With no protective casing string set in the blowout well, gas began bubbling up in the neighbors yards and a full-on underground blowout was underway.


All this blowout stuff got a little too technical for the local police department so they soliticited the help of Exxon/Mobil headquartered in Georgetown a few miles away. In 2015 Exxon made the biggest offshore oil discovery in South America the past 40 years off Guyana and were the only experts around. Exxon sent an entire team of engineers to Demerara. Relief wells were drilled.


With gas and water being vented from relief wells the blowout well got some pipe driven in the ground and was capped with this capping stack on the left, a 250 pound ball valve. Relief wells were completed the same way.


Mr. Gorakh was released from the housecow and returned home to try and smooth things over with the neigbors. Two days later shit hit the fan again. Two doors down from his house there was a swimming pool in a neighbors yard that suddenly became a jacuzzi that couldn't be turned off.




More relief wells were drilled and a water distribution system set up in the operator's yard complete with desander and pressurized storage tank.


The good news, if there is any, is now the operator does not have to mow the grass in his backyard anymore. It's full of relief wells.


Mr. Gorakh's neighbors all have newly painted homes, replanted landscape...and plently of water to use.






No. 1-R successfully intercepted the blowout zone at 128' TVD, right. No, 2, 3, 4 and 5-R's are just out of site.





 


Oil was discovered 100 miles off the coast of Guyana in 2015 by a consortium of companies including CNOCC, Hess, Tullow and of course, Exxon, in the giant Stabroek Block. The field was named Lisa. It contains an estimated 9 GBo of 35 API oil in sandstones at 15,000 plus feet TVD. in 5,000 feet of water.


The consortium continues to explore for, and find new discoveries along strike with Lisa Field and now estimated recoverable oil from its block is up to 12 GBo.


Tullow and partners, also on strike with Lisa are finding oil off Surniame and things are looking up off this part of South America, so much so that Exxon is in a chicken fight with Chevron, who wants to buy Hess's interest under preferential right to purchase provisions in the consortium's Joint Operating Agreement. Exxon is having a fit, as you might expect, but because the deal between Hess and Chevron is all stock releated it is unlikely Exxon will prevail and/or Exxon will have to out bid Chevron. Hess loves it. Neighboring Venezuela is in boundry disputes with Guyana trying to get it's share.


Guyana is sparcely populated and a large portion of its population imigrates to Venzuela, but with the discovery of oil are now moving back to their country in hope of prosperity. Not long after the 2015 discovery, Georgetown began to get Americanized, quickly, right.


French Guiana, to the south, is where the infamous penal colonies were of Papillion lore.



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