GULF OF MEXICO 64 US Gulf deepwater prospects in delineation or further study

82 prospects beyond 1,000 ft depth contour;
18 prospects already in production

Leonard Le Blanc
Editor
Marshall De Luca
Surveys Editor

• US Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Fields, Prospects [.pdf file]
• Table cont'd.

There are 82 recorded prospects beyond the 1,000 ft water depth contour in the US Gulf of Mexico, of which 18 have already been developed and are onstream. Most of the 18 have been developed in recent years and production from this group continues to climb as more development wells are brought onstream. Of the remaining 64 developable discoveries, 38 have prospect names, which indicates a strong probability of some type of development in the future. Of the 38 named fields, development systems have already been selected for 11. Sixty-one of the developable discoveries are under study (planning) and three are in the fabrication stage. Another 26 fields are unnamed at this time, and delineation drilling is underway on most, only 1 unnamed field is producing at this time. The difficulty in finding deepwater drilling units is slowing delineation drilling on the known prospects. Highlights of the list of 82 developed and developable deepwater prospects follow:

The majority of the discoveries are in the Mississippi Canyon area (32%, 26 prospects), Green Canyon (27%, 22 prospects), and Garden Banks (16%, 13 prospects).

The leading operator is Shell with 28 discoveries and 34% of the total discoveries followed by Exxon and Chevron with 8 discoveries and 10% of the total each.

Three of the prospects are in depths over 7,000 ft. The deepest is Shell's Baha prospect in Alaminos Canyon 809 at a water depth of 7,625 ft.

Forty percent of the prospects are in the 1,000 - 1,999 ft. range (33), followed by 22% in the 3,000 - 3,999 ft. range (18), and 20% in the 2,000 - 2,999 ft. range (16).

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