The Jethro-1 was drilled in July by drillship ‘Stena Forth’ owned by Stena Drilling, to a Total Depth of 4,400m meters in approximately 1,350 meters of water.

Evaluation of logging data confirms that Jethro-1 is the first discovery on the Orinduik licence and comprises high quality oil bearing sandstone reservoirs of Lower Tertiary age, said Tullow on Monday.

The well encountered 55m of net oil pay which supports a recoverable oil resource estimate which exceeds Tullow’s pre-drill forecast. Tullow will now evaluate the data from the Jethro discovery and determine appropriate appraisal activity.

Tullow stated that, this discovery significantly de-risks other Tertiary age prospects on the Orinduik licence, including the shallower Upper Tertiary Joe prospect which will commence drilling later this month following the conclusion of operations at the Jethro-1 well.

Company added that, the non-operated Carapa 1 well will be drilled, later this year, on the adjacent Kanuku licence to test the Cretaceous oil play.

Jethro Lobe spud is the first prospect to be drilled as part of a two-well programme and will be immediately followed by the drilling of an exploration well on the Joe prospect, offshore Guyana.

Paul Mcdade, CEO Tullow Oil commented, “This substantial and high value oil discovery in Guyana is an outcome of the significant technical and commercial focus which has underpinned the reset of our exploration portfolio. It is an excellent start to our drilling campaign in the highly prolific Guyana oil province. We look forward to drilling both the Joe and Carapa prospects in our 2019 drilling campaign and the material follow-up exploration potential in both the Orinduik and Kanuku licences.”

On this occasion in a separate statement, Gil Holzman, CEO and Co-Founder of Eco Atlantic said, “We are thrilled to report this exceptionally exciting discovery. This is a revolutionary moment for Eco. It has been a long path of hard work for our team, and with today’s announcement we feel our first rewards have justified our journey. We have been very confident in the prospects of the Orinduik since we first decided to make a licence application in February 2014, based on a strong recommendation from our team at Kinley Exploration. [I always believed …….exciting discovery.]

“This is a transformational event for the Company, and we now need to strategically plan for an even brighter future. With multiple targets to consider, and Joe as the next prospect to be drilled, we will now pursue our evaluation of the timing for wells to develop the Jethro field and to expediently bring it on production. We are funded for at least six additional wells.”

Tullow Guyana B.V. (“Tullow”) (Operator, 60% Working Interest (“WI”)), Total E&P Guyana B.V. (“Total”) (25% WI) and Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas with 15% interest, respectively, on Orinduik Block.

The Stena Forth, dynamically positioned DP Class 3 drillship capable of drilling in water depths up to 10,000 ft, was mobilized in June for this campaign.