Westmount Energy PLC stays upbeat offshore Guyana

What it does

Westmount Energy Limited () has indirect exposure to high impact exploration assets offshore Guyana where ExxonMobil has experienced an impressive run of success.

In the last five years, 18 out of 20 exploration wells drilled on the ExxonMobil-operated Stabroek Block have met with success, contributing to a discovered inventory of 9bn barrels of oil equivalent.

That figure is expected to grow as we move through next year, with stacked petroleum systems, emerging new plays and deeper-lying hydrocarbons confirming the huge potential of this prolific basin.

Westmount owns shares in companies that could benefit directly from those efforts.

It is a shareholder in JHI Associates Inc, a private Canadian company, which in turn has a 17.5% interest in the ExxonMobil operated Canje Block.

Canje is positioned adjacent to Stabroek and it is host to what has been described as a lookalike of the Liza field – the largest and most advanced discovery within Stabroek.

JHI’s interest in the Canje drilling is funded by a high premium 2018 Farm-in by Total which yielded up to 4 well carries and significant cash.

How it’s doing

On March 9:

() told investors it is expecting that operations for the next well at the Canje block, offshore Guyana, will start tomorrow.

The company, in a statement, noted an announcement by Guyana’s Maritime Administration Department, that the Stena Carron drillship will begin drilling operations at the Jabillo-1 wellsite on 10 March.

Jabillo will be the second of three exploration wells scheduled for the Exxon-led Canje block this year. It is described as a 1bn barrel prospect, in the Late Cretaceous basin fan system.

On March 4:

Westmount Energy relayed the results of the Bulletwood exploration well, on the Canje block offshore Guyana, which encountered quality reservoirs but sub-commercial volumes of hydrocarbons.

JHI, as a result of a 2018 farm-out deal with Total, was carried in the funding of the well, as will be for further wells planned on the Canje Block.

“Data collection at Bulletwood-1 confirms the presence of the Guyana-Suriname Basin petroleum system and the potential prospectivity of the Canje Block,” Westmount noted.

“Bulletwood-1 is the first of three wells scheduled to be drilled on the block in 2021 with drilling of the independent prospects Jabillo-1 and Sapote-1 to follow over the coming months.”

On 18 January 2021:

Westmount Energy Limited () has agreed to increase its exposure to high impact exploration drilling presently underway offshore Guyana.

It is increasing its stake in privately owned JHI Associates which owns a 17.5% interest in the ExxonMobil operated Canje block, where the Bulletwood-1 well is being drilled.

Westmount is buying some 287,000 JHI shares for C$718,750.

 It increases Westmount’s stake in JHI to 7.7%, from 7.2% previously.

Drilling at the first Canje well, Bulletwood-1, kicked off in January and completion of the well is anticipated around mid to late February. Additional Canje drilling will follow-on in the first half of 2021.

5 January 2021

Westmount Energy Limited () has highlighted the start of drilling operations at the Bulletwood-1 well, part of the Canje exploration project offshore Guyana.

The group said it fires the starting pistol on an exciting and potentially game-changing period for the small-cap oil investor.

What management says

“Where the basin is today, this is not the typical junior resource story,” said director Dermot Corcoran.

“Everything here in Guyana is going to happen in a very compressed timeframe for Westmount investors. Since the Liza discovery was made in 2015 there has been over 30,000 square kilometres of 3D seismic shot in the Guyana sector.

“The prospect inventory has been established, five drillships are in the basin and more are coming, and it is now basically about drilling outcomes.

“This inventory of drill targets, which are all Upper…