Westmount Energy Limited (LON:WTE) is an investor. It owns 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. This lookalike target will be tested by the ‘Bulletwood-1’ exploration well which is due to spud before the end of 2020 and will yield results in the New Year.
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.
Well catalysts pending
Westmount, meanwhile, has indirect interests in other exploration acreage with an adjacent border to Stabroek – such as the Kaieteur Block and the Orinduik Block.
Third-party led drilling projects are the key drivers for the company and multiple such programmes are lined up in the coming weeks and months.
The excitement for 2021 will be provided by three planned ExxonMobil-operated wells on the Canje Block, next to Stabroek.
The ‘Bulletwood-1’ exploration well kicks off the drilling schedule and is targeting around 500mln barrels of crude.
It will be followed by Jabillo-1, which is estimated to be double that size, or Sapote-1 which will assess the deep-lying oil potential of the south-east of the area.
Open to American investors
In early December, Westmount became the first exploration and production company to be quoted on both AIM and the OTCQB Market in New York.
Trading under the ticker WMELF, it is using the OTC as an international stage for its investments in the fast-emerging Guyana-Suriname Basin.
“We are mindful of the substantial Guyanese diaspora living in the United States, and we are hopeful that this cross-trading facility provides an additional opportunity for exposure to exploration drilling outcomes in this prolific basin and the emerging Guyanese exploration success story,” said Westmount chairman Gerard Walsh in a statement.
What the company 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 Cretaceous, are largely independent of each other. As an investor, you’re not reliant upon one exploration well. It is going to be a story where the wells are going to come rapid-fire over the next year, and, we will be reliant on the drill-bit results to be either heroes or zeros.”
“But, we think we can benefit from the portfolio effect, the large number of wells coming in the basin and the track record in terms of success rate achieved by ExxonMobil in this prolific basin.”
