Guinea: Hyperdynamics’ drilling success chances rising

Hyperdynamics Corporation, an independent oil and gas exploration firm with an offshore block in Guinea, has seen an increase in its drilling success chances offshore the West African Country.

The company on Monday said it had received an updated exploration risk assessment of its top two drilling prospects that materially increases the probability of exploration success for both.

The improved risk assessment follows the reprocessing of 3D seismic data by specialty processor eSeis, Inc. covering the Fatala 1 and Buried Hill 1 deepwater prospects offshore Guinea using a more advanced technology that produced clearer images of the geologic characteristics of the projects, Hyperdynamics said.

Based on this enhanced imaging, Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc., (NSAI) a provider of reserve audits and resource assessments, upgraded its opinion of the probability of success for the Fatala 1 prospect from 25% to 31%, and it increased the probability of success for the Buried Hill 1 prospect from 20% to 24%.

Using standard industry methodology, NSAI noted that both prospects represent “low-risk exploration.”

“We are delighted with the results of this latest evaluation of our top Guinea prospects which lay in a largely untested basin offshore West Africa,” said Hyperdynamics President and Chief Executive Officer Ray Leonard. “De-risking drilling prospects as much as possible is a critical part of the exploration process, and the reprocessing work eSeis conducted produced a much more coherent and cleaner 3D seismic view that suggests direct evidence of hydrocarbons, good quality sandstones, and effective trapping seals.”

NSAI’s most recent estimate dated April 2016 of the prospective resource potential of all drilling prospects and leads in Hyperdynamics 5,000-square-kilometer concession area estimates the presence of 4.8 billion barrels of recoverable hydrocarbon resources. This includes more than 2 billion barrels of recoverable resources in prospects with a 20% chance of success or higher.

To remind, in a recent agreement reached with the Guinea government, Hyperdynamics pledged to drill an exploration well in the country’s waters in April 2017.

Also, to support its upcoming drilling program, Hyperdynamics has recently made several additions to its management team.