LIZA 1
Georgetown
South America
Guyana
Photo by Robert Seale
Champion , Moreland and the wellsite geologists had the benefit of something else that supported the significance of the find: the drill cuttings from the reservoir itself. “We analyzed the rock frag- ments in a small lab on board the ship, both for rock type and for what we call ‘shows,’” Moreland says. “That analysis, along with the well logs acquired while drilling, suggested the potential for a sig- nificant volume of high-quality oil.”
11,000 feet beneath the seabed,” Moreland says. “I was too excited to sleep, even for a few hours, and was at our helicopter base at dawn. By 9 a.m., I was aboard the ship.” By this time the Exploration and Drilling teams in Houston, as well as those on the third floor of the small Guyana venture office, felt they could be witnessing some- thing big, as the well logs showed the intermittent presence of hydrocarbons within the target.
“We didn’t know at that point what we had, since we were drill- ing in and out of several sands,” says Jeff Simons, country man- ager, who transferred to Guyana in late 2014 from an assignment in Europe. “Drilling continued through the night, and on the morning of May 6, it became clear we’d found a column of hy- drocarbons extending more than 295 feet. That’s big, really big.” On board the Deepwater
The Liza 1 discovery well is 120 miles offshore Guyana in 5,700 feet of water.
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