Shell confirmed a third discovery at the Norphlet play in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, the supermajor announced on 15 July 2015.
The explorer hit more than 400ft (122m) of net oil pay at its Rydberg well, located 75mi (120km) off the Gulf Coast in Mississippi Canyon Block 525, where water depth is 7479ft (2280m). The well was drilled by Noble’s Noble Globetrotter drillship to a total depth of 26,371ft (8038m).
Shell said the discovery is located within 10mi (16km) of the planned Appomattox development and the 2013 Vicksburg discovery (Shell, operator, 75% and Nexen, 25%).
Shell is completing the full evaluation of the well results but expects the resource base to be approximately 100MMboe. Together with the Appomattox and Vicksburg discoveries, this brings the total potential Norphlet discoveries to over 700MMboe, Shell said.
This is the first discovery for the partnership, which includes Shell (operator, interest 57.2%), Ecopetrol America Inc. (28.5%) and Nexen (14.3%), a wholly-owned affiliate of CNOOC Limited.
Appomattox, which Shell operates with interest 80% along with partner Nexen (20%) is currently in the define phase of development and is moving forward with engineering design for the floating production system, subsea infrastructure and wells.
Shell and Nexen are following up the Rydberg discovery with an exploratory well at Gettysburg, with the drillship Noble Globetrotter I, located in Desoto Canyon Block 398 which is also within 10mi (16km) of the Appomattox development.
The Jurassic-period Norphlet play is a geological formation that extends from onshore to the deepwaters of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and is characterized by high pressures and well temperatures, where good quality oil can be found in high quality sandstone reservoirs, Shell says.
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