ConocoPhillips is dropping out of the Coronado prospect located in Walker Ridge Block 52 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
The company was in a joint venture with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. as the operator with, Chevron Corp. and Venari Resources LLC.
According to ConocoPhillips’ 3Q 2014 results, the company said, “After further evaluation, the company has elected not to continue appraisal of the Coronado prospect and expensed the initial wildcat well costs as a dry hole.”
In ConocoPhillips' quarterly call, Matt Fox, executive VP, exploration and production said, "I mean the original discovery well was very encouraging but the first appraisal well that we drilled was intended to establish what the overall size was and it was disappointing. So rather than continue to appraise that we feel as if we'd be better to direct our exploration and appraisal dollars elsewhere, so that's why we decided not to continue pursuing Coronado. But it doesn't have any implications for our overall deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration program. We've got very strong position there; over 2 million net acres that we like a lot. We've got the three big discoveries already that we're appraising. And so, that doesn't have any long-term implications for our Gulf of Mexico exploration program."
In its 2Q 2014 results, Anadarko commented that appraisal would continue at Coronado during 2014. During the quarter, it was being tested in the secondary Miocene objective, and was deemed non-commercial.
In Anadarko’s 4Q 2013 report, the company announced it had enhanced its ownership position in Coronado, and its path on becoming operator. The report went on to say that Anadarko is the only company with ownership in all three discoveries in the Shenandoah Basin with the other two being the Yucatan prospect and the Shenandoah-2 appraisal well.
In May 2013, then-operator Chevron encountered more than 400ft of net oil pay at the wildcat exploration well WR98-1 Coronado. Coronado is located approximately 190 mi. off the Louisiana coast in 6127ft of water. The well was drilled to a depth of 31,866ft by the drillship Pacific Santa Ana.
Since then, no other finds were made at the prospect.
In its 3Q 2014 results, ConocoPhillips says it is continued to advance multiple mega projects during the quarter, noting the Lucius project in the GoM, with first oil expected in the coming weeks.
In addition, construction on the Heidelberg spar hull, also in the GoM, is complete and the project remains on schedule for first oil in 2016.
ConocoPhillips also announced that sales volumes of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids totaled a record 78MMboe, averaging out at 849,000 boe/d. When compared to 3Q 2013, this represents an increase of almost 105,000boe/d.
Map from Chevron.
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