By 24 September 2018, the Public Survey Commission had greenlight Total's application for up to five exploration wells on its Guyane Maritime Exclusive Exploration Licence (EEL), one of these wells to be drilled on the Nasua prospect. Back in March 2018, Total were seeking to farm-out WI in the Nasua prospect to a select number of companies active in Guianas Margin (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana), and were looking for a partner to help it drill what it has described as a "giant oil prospect". In water depths of around 2,000m the well, known as Nasua-1, could spud as early as 2018-2019 to target stacked horizons at a cost of up to US$ 150-200 million and has been enabled by Total securing an extension for the Guyana-Suriname Basin block. With progress to the spudding of Nasua-1 continuing, Total could potentially still be seeking to farm-out WI to a partner, may already be in discussions with a potential farm-in partner, or be happy to continue to shoulder the cost of exploration alone should a farm-in partner not materialise.On 14 September 2017, the French Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development and the Minister of Economy and Finance extended by decree the EEL for a further three years. The decree was published in the Journal Official de la Republique Francaise (JORF) 0221 on 21 September 2017. French Guiana is a Department of France. While then-operator Tullow made the GM-ES-1 (Zaedyus-1) discovery in 2011 (72m of net oil pay in two turbidite fan systems), Shell's follow up programme in 2012-2013 failed to find any commercial hydrocarbons. Shows were detected in the GM-ES-2 (Zaedyus-2) appraisal and the GM-ES-3 (Priodontes 1) NFW. The GM-ES-5 appraisal and GM-ES-4 Cebus-1 NFW were also dry. With Total throwing out the welcome mat in March 2018, the most likely farm-in partner were thought to be a larger company with the expertise and financial wherewithal to cover the drilling programme. Several companies like ExxonMobil, which discovered the Liza Field in offshore Guyana, Tullow and Repsol of Spain are active in the Guyana-Suriname Basin. Brazil's Foz do Amazonas Basin could yield some leads as well. A 2017 French decree assigned Total operatorship and 45% WI after Shell activated its retreat from the block in February 2016. That resulted in Total holding 92.5%. In the extension period, Northpet Investments Ltd (Northpet), was to increase its interest from 2.5% to 7.5% WI. Northpet is owned by Vermeer Exploration BV (Vermeer). This is 49% Hague and London Oil plc (HALO) and 51% management & founding shareholders of HALO. However, in April 2017, Northpet submitted to withdraw from the block, which will give Total 100% WI subject to government approval.
Total were seeking to farm-out WI in the Nasua prospect to a select number of companies active in Guianas Margin (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana), and were looking for a partner to help it drill what it has described as a "giant oil prospect".