BP found a potentially commercial amount of oil with its deepwater Far South exploration well offshore the coast of Louisiana days after the US Department of the Interior announced a significant increase in estimated oil and gas reserves on the gulf’s outer continental shelf (OCS).
BP’s well and the subsequent sidetrack, drilled in Green Canyon Block 584 in the Gulf of Mexico (aka Gulf of America), encountered oil in high-quality Miocene reservoirs, the operator said in its 14 April announcement. Far South is 4 miles north of the Constellation field and close to the Oxy-operated Constitution spar.
Diamond Offshore's drillship Ocean Blackhornet drilled the well to 23,830 ft total depth in 4,092-ft-deep water. Preliminary data supports a potentially commercial volume of hydrocarbons. BP operates Far South with 57.5% interest on behalf of partner Chevron, which has the remaining 42.5% interest.
Andy Krieger, senior vice president for Gulf of America and Canada at BP, said in a news release that the operator aims to build its gulf production capacity to 400,000 BOE/D by the end of the decade and overall upstream production to between 2.3 million BOE/D and 2.5 million BOE/D by 2030. In total, US BP’s onshore and offshore operations are expected to contribute about 1 million BOEPD of that output.
BP announced earlier this year it was slashing renewables spending in favor of growing its hydrocarbons business. BP said it plans to drill about 40 exploration wells over the next 3 years, of which between 10 and 15 will be drilled this year.
Reserves increase
Analysis by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management revealed an increase of 1.3 billion BOE of oil and gas reserves on the gulf’s outer continental shelf, according to a 10 April announcement.
That increase jumps the region’s total reserve estimate to 7 billion BOE, including 5.77 billion bbl of oil and 7.15 Tcf of natural gas. According to the analysis, this represents a 22.6% increase in remaining recoverable reserves.
BOEM’s updated assessment evaluated more than 140 oil and gas fields. It identified 18 new discoveries and analyzed more than 37,000 reservoirs across 1,336 fields in the gulf.
“This new data confirms what we’ve known all along—America is sitting on a treasure trove of energy,” Doug Burgum, secretary of the Interior, said in a release.
