Talos close to starting up two US Gulf subsea tiebacks

Talos Energy expects to start production from the Sunspear Field in the US Gulf of Mexico (GoM) toward the end of June.

Seadrill’s West Vela drillship finished well completion operations earlier this year. Sunspear, in Green Canyon Block 78, is under development as a tieback to the Talos-operated Prince platform, with projected initial output of about 8-10 MMboe/d.

Last month, the same rig started completion operations for Talos on the Katmai West #2 well, drilled earlier this year. This well also should go onstream by mid-year, via a tie-in to subsea infrastructure connected to the Tarantula platform in South Timbalier Block 308 A, where capacity has recently been increased to 35,000 boe/d.

The results have led the company to almost double its estimate of the ultimate recovery from the Katmai West Field in the Ewing Bank area to 50 MMboe, with the Katmai area as a whole thought to hold a total potential resource of 200 MMboe.

Next month, West Vela should spud the high-impact subsalt Daenerys well, targeting the regionally prolific Middle and Lower Miocene intervals with a resource potential in the range 100 MMboe to 300 MMboe. 

Talos has a 30% interest, in partnership with Red Willow, Cathexis and HEQ Deepwater.

In March, Talos lifted its stake to 29.76% in Monument, a large Wilcox oil discovery operated by Beacon Energy in Walker Ridge blocks 271, 272, 315 and 316. This will likely be a subsea tieback development to the Shenandoah production platform, with first production expected by late 2026 at rates between 20 MMboe/d to 30 MMboe/d.