Canadian exploration company, CGX Energy, has announced the name of their new exploration well. The Utakwaaka well will be located in the Corentyne Block in Guyana. CGX Energy holds a 100 per cent stake in the block and according to the company, the well will be drilled in November 2019.
This new well is not the first attempt at the Corentyne Block, CGX having previously drilled the Eagle Shallow Well back in 2012. The Eagle 1 well, which reached Upper Cretaceous Campanian sediments at 4,328m, encountered hydrocarbon shows in the Oligocene, Eocene, Maastrichtian and Campanian zones, indicating an active petroleum system.
The Canadian company also announced earlier this year that they have appointed a new drilling engineer who previously worked on the Eagle Shallow Well and has now returned to the company to work on the next well.
The company is paying homage to the indigenous people with the use of the Utakwaaka name which has Phillipai origins and translates to ‘dawn of a new day’.
Executive Chairman of CGX, Professor Suresh Narine, noted that giving the well an indigenous name is a departure from the norm in the oil industry.
The announcement was made at a company event hosted in partnership with the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs. The culture-packed evening held at the Umana Yana was centered on the naming and blessing of the company’s next exploration well by the Aleluya Indigenous Religion, 12 elders and members of which travelled from the Phillipai and Amokokopai villages and surrounding areas for the event.