Kosmos Abandons Oldfield Well in the Gulf

Kosmos Energy has completed drilling the Oldfield exploration well (Kosmos 40 percent, Hess 60 percent) in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
According to the company, the well was designed to test a sub-salt Miocene prospect located in Mississippi Canyon, targeting about 10 mmboe net to Kosmos. The well did not encounter commercial quantities of hydrocarbons and will now be plugged and abandoned.
The well is in approximately 1,500 meters of water and was drilled to a total depth of 6,500 meters. Kosmos expects to record about $24 million of exploration expense related to the drilling project, split ~60:40 between 4Q19 and 1Q20.
As the well did not yield commercial quantities of hydrocarbons, the Valaris 8503 rig will move to the Kodiak field to begin operations on a new infill producer well, according to the company. Kosmos plans to drill three additional infrastructure-led exploration wells in the Gulf of Mexico this year.
During the last quarter of 2019 the company completed drilling the Resolution exploration well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, but it also had to be plugged and abandoned as the primary exploration objective proved to be water bearing.
During that same month it had better news tied to an offshore oil discovery in Equatorial Guinea, where its S-5 well was drilled to a depth of 4,400 meters and encountered 39 meters of net oil pay.
According to Rystad Energy, Kosmos’ Orca-1 discovery offshore Mauritania was 2019’s deepest and largest gas discovery.
The company’s key assets include production offshore Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and U.S. Gulf of Mexico, as well as a gas development offshore Mauritania and Senegal. It also maintains an exploration program balanced between proven basin infrastructure-led exploration (Equatorial Guinea and U.S. Gulf of Mexico), emerging basins (Mauritania, Senegal and Suriname) and frontier basins (Cote d'Ivoire, Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe and South Africa).
To contact the author, email bertie.taylor@rigzone.com.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- Oil Discovery Made in US Gulf of Mexico
- Apex Strikes Oil in Egypt
- API Signs MOU with Azerbaijan Oil Company
- Keystone XL Could Become Scrap If Biden Pulls License
- Maersk Drilling Firms Up $100MM Contracts with Total
- Chevron Partners in Israel to Egypt Pipeline
- High Interest in Continued Exploration Off Norway
- Vaca Muerta Driller Needs to Make Deal with Creditors
- Incident on FPSO Espoir Ivoirien
- Investors Flock Back into Oil
- ADNOC Creates New Directorate
- Total Makes Significant Oil Find
- Equinor Bags Largest Ever US Offshore Wind Award
- Dana Terminates Maersk Drilling Deal
- ENOG Takes Karish North FID
- Oil Discovery Made in US Gulf of Mexico
- NS2 Set to Finish Bulk of Work on One Line in June
- Leaking Pipeline Underscores Libya Production Challenges
- Demand Grows for Russia Flagship Crude
- Feds Decline Comment on Exxon Permian Probe Report
- Executives Predict 2021-End Oil Price
- Biden Picks Energy Sec Nominee
- Shale Needs More to Boom Again
- Canada Gov Supports Hibernia Project
- Troops Fight Off Attack Near $20B LNG Project
- India Asked to Pay $1.2B to Cairn
- Pacific Drilling Expects Ch11 Emergence by End 2020
- BLM Finalizes Alaska Activity Plan
- Qatar and Four Arab States to Fully Restore Ties
- OGUK Reacts to Brexit Deal