Beacon Offshore Energy has made an oil discovery at the Winterfell offshore well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Kosmos Energy, a partner in the project has informed.
Kosmos, which owns a 17.5% interest in the project said that the Winterfell infrastructure-led (ILX) exploration well was designed to test a sub-salt Upper Miocene prospect located in Green Canyon Block 944. The well encountered approximately 26 meters (85 feet) of net oil pay in two intervals.
Andrew G. Inglis, Kosmos Energy's chairman and chief executive officer said: "We are pleased to have started the New Year with exploration success at Winterfell validating our proven basin exploration strategy, which is focused on low cost, short cycle, low carbon development solutions.
"The Winterfell well was funded by a portion of the proceeds from the partial sale of our frontier exploration portfolio. The well in Green Canyon Block 944 de-risks prospectivity in several neighboring blocks held by Kosmos, with approximately 100 million barrels of gross potential within Kosmos' acreage position."
The Winterfell (formerly known as Monarch) well is located in approximately 1,600 meters (5,300 feet) of water and was drilled to a total depth of approximately 7,000 meters (23,000 feet). An affiliate of Beacon Offshore Energy, a Blackstone-backed oil firm, is the operator of the Winterfell well.
Additional interest owners include Red Willow Offshore LLC, Ridgewood Monarch North LLC, CSL Exploration, LP, CL&F Offshore LLC, Houston Energy, L.P., Beacon Offshore Energy Exploration LLC, and Beacon Asset Holdings LLC.
"Kosmos will now work with partners on an appraisal plan and development options. The discovery is located within tie back distance to several existing and planned host facilities," Kosmos said.
Kosmos also plans to drill the Zora ILX well in the Gulf of Mexico later in the year.