Stena Forth will drill Marina-1 exploration well, located in Block Z-38, and the drilling is planned to start early in the first quarter of 2020

Image: Stena Drilling Stena Forth Dynamically Positioned Drillship. Photo: Courtesy of Karoon Energy.

Karoon Energy has executed binding agreements with Stena Drilling and Tullow Oil to contract the Stena Forth drillship for its Marina-1 exploration well in Peru.

Under the contract, Stena Forth will drill Marina-1 exploration well, located in Block Z-38, which is 40% owned and operated by Karoon. The drilling is planned to start early in the first quarter of 2020.

Karoon Energy managing director Robert Hosking said: “The contracting of the “Stena Forth” for the exploration of the Marina Prospect is an exciting opportunity for Karoon. Karoon has been working for some time to assess the prospectivity of the block, attract a farmout partner and prepare for drilling.

“The drilling of Marina-1 is a critical milestone for assessing the prospectivity of the deeper waters off northern Peru, and, on success, could de-risk several further exploration targets within Block Z-38, and Karoon’s 100% owned Area 73 Technical Evaluation Area, potentially providing important future production for Peru.”

Karoon, Tullow Oil, Pitkin Petroleum jointly own Block Z-38

The company said that the Marina exploration Prospect is a large fault bounded structure with prospective reservoirs at multiple levels, ranging from 900m subsea down to 2900m subsea.

The prospect is expected to hold an estimated at 256 million barrels of Gross Prospective Resources.

Marina-1 would be the first well drilled in Z-38 and serves as an important calibration point for the petroleum geology of the block.

In addition, the information from the well can be used for evaluating other prospects and leads in Z-38, with more than a billion barrels in gross prospective resources, and in the technical evaluation area.

Karoon said that its wholly owned subsidiary KEI Sucursal del Peru holds a 40% operating equity interest in the Blocks, along with Tullow Oil holding 35% and Pitkin Petroleum holding 25% equity interest.

Hosking added: “The “Stena Forth” Drillship is a recently delivered harsh water drillship with capabilities to drill in far deeper water depths and much harsher sea states than those found in Northern Peru, Karoon is happy to have secured the use of such a high quality vessel for this well.

“The company takes its responsibility to the local people and environment very seriously and has very experienced operational people who are committed to the highest levels of operational safety drilling the Marina-1 well.”