Offshore staff
HOUSTON – BP has begun appraisal drilling on its Tiber oil prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Reuters.
According to the report, BP confirmed that drilling began on August 3. ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Ryan Lance disclosed it to analysts during a webcast presentation at the Barclays Energy-Power Conference in New York. ConocoPhillips is a minority partner in Tiber.
In 2009, BP touted what it called a "giant" oil discovery in the Tiber field next to its Kaskida field that could hold up to 3 Bbbl of oil. Both fields are in theLower Tertiary trend, the Gulf's deepest, most challenging and most promising deposit that is estimated to hold up to 15 Bbbl of oil.
BP had planned in 2010 to drill appraisal wells in the Tiber field to help gauge how much oil was there. The company's Macondo rupture and spill prompted the shutdown that delayed those plans.
That drilling plan resumed last month with the start of the new well in Tiber. BP had already begun exploratory drilling at another prospect near Tiber, called Gila, and that work is continuing.
09/13/2013
