The Bright exploration well in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico reached the targeted Upper and Middle Miocene objectives, but did not encounter hydrocarbons and has been plugged and abandoned, says Noble Energy Inc.
The well, located on the Atwater Valley 362 was drilled to a total depth of 13,500ft using the ENSCO DS-4 drillship. Full well assessment and the integration of drilling results into the Noble’s geologic models is ongoing to determine forward exploration plans on the recently acquired Atwater Valley acreage.
"While we are disappointed with the results of the Bright well, we remain extremely encouraged by the recent success of our exploration program in the Gulf,” says Susan Cunningham, senior vice president, Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, and Frontier. “We look forward to results at our Katmai and Dantzler exploration wells later this month."
BP Exploration & Production Inc. operated the well with 50% working interest and Noble Energy had the remaining 50%.
Atwater Exploration
On 16 June, Noble and BP reached an agreement to acquire interest in 17 deepwater exploration leases located in the Atwater Valley region of the Gulf of Mexico, which included the Bright prospect.
The remaining 16 leases are located in the Atwater Valley protraction area. According to the terms of agreement, Noble has a 50% working interest in 12 deepwater leases (not including Bright), along with an average 26% interest in four additional leases.
Noble’s Gulf of Mexico Activity
Noble has several large producing fields, multiple ongoing development projects and a additional exploration opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico.
Gunflint, a 2008 discovery and Big Bend, a 2012 discovery, were sanctioned in 2013 and will provide the next leg of production growth for Noble’s deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration.
Big Bend, as part of the Rio Grande complex, will initially be a 1-well tieback with first production estimated in late 2015. Successes at Troubadour and Dantzler increase gross discovered resources of Rio Grande to 130 to 235MMboe. Dantzler is planned as a two-well tie-back, utilizing Big Bend infrastructure, with initial startup in 2016. Gunflint is planned to be a 2-well tieback to come online in mid-2016.
Nobles says that these fields combined, are planned to double their deepwater Gulf of Mexico production over the next four to five years.
With an unrisked exploration inventory of over 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent gross, we maintain a multi-year inventory of prospects focused on subsalt Miocene and proven amplitude plays and multiple new prospects are targeted annually, says Noble.
Image of ENSCO DS-4
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