Offshore staff
HOUSTON– Noble Energy has announced a discovery at the Santiago exploration prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The well, located in 6,500 ft (2,000 m) of water on Mississippi Canyon Block 519, was drilled to a total depth of approximately 18,920 ft (5,766 m). Open-hole logging identified approximately 60 ft (18 m) of oil pay in a high-quality Miocene reservoir. Noble Energy is the operator at Santiago with a 23.25% working interest.
Santiago is the third discovery in the company’s Galapagos project, in addition to the prior successes at Santa Cruz and Isabela. Total gross resources discovered in the larger Galapagos project, including the Santiago well, are estimated by Noble Energy to be 130 MM boe. Approximately 75% of the discovered resources are oil.
“The discovery at Santiago is a great way to resume our drilling program in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico,” said Charles D. Davidson, Noble Energy’s Chairman and CEO. “The well results were consistent with our pre-drill expectations, and our teams did an outstanding job in the midst of a changing operating environment. We expect all three wells at Galapagos to be online in early 2012, and we are increasing the project’s total net production impact to Noble Energy to over ten thousand barrels of oil per day.”
In late February 2011, the company received the industry’s first drilling permit after the deepwater Gulf of Mexico moratorium for the Santiago prospect, where drilling was suspended in June 2010. Drilling operations resumed in early April 2011 following multiple reviews of operating and response plans, as well as third-party certifications of well designs and equipment.
Utilizing theEnsco 8501drilling rig, the company will immediately proceed with completion operations at Santiago. Those operations are expected to last approximately two months, after which the company is planning to return to drilling the Deep Blue prospect (Green Canyon 723). Following Deep Blue, the company is planning to spud an appraisal well at the Gunflint discovery (Mississippi Canyon 948).
06/01/11
