Statoil’s Martin prospect located in Mississippi Canyon block 718 in the US Gulf of Mexico (GOM) has been plugged and abandoned. Statoil said while a discovery was made, it was non-commercial.
Statoil says the Maersk Developer semisubmersible rig, which drilled the Martin well, will move to the high impact Perseus prospect in De Soto Canyon 231.
Statoil spudded the Martin prospect on 20 April 2014. In May, during OTC in Houston, Statoil said it had high hopes for the Martin prospect. Statoil's Senior Vice President of Exploration in North America, Jez Averty, said: "We consider Martin one of the top prospects in our global portfolio."
Martin is in about 2916ft water depth in the Greater Mars basin, about 205km south-southeast of New Orleans, and approximately 218mi from the Louisiana coast. The plan included drilling to a total depth of 31,400ft to target the Miocene.
Statoil operates another GOM prospect, Logan. It is also a partner on other large GOM prospects, including the Chevron-operated Jack/St. Malo and Big Foot fields, as well as the ExxonMobil-operated Julia field, which was sanctioned in 2013 and is estimated to have nearly 6 billion bbl of resource in place.
In June 2012, at the 2012 Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 216.222, Statoil paid US$157.1 million for the Mississippi Canyon Block 718. It was the single highest bid that year’s lease sale and was included in the 26 successful high bids for Statoil, which walked away spending $333.2 million at the sale.
Statoil operates the Martin prospect, with 42.5% interest, with partners Nexen (25%) and LLOG (26%).
Image of the Maersk Developer semisubmersible rig from Maersk
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