The Gulf of Mexico is Back in Play

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The Gulf of Mexico is Back in Play

abarrelfull wrote on 13 Jun 2011 12:57
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After the terrible events of last year, that caused the loss of 11 lives an the release of millions of barrels of oil, The Gulf of Mexico went into a kind of suspended animation. All new projects were put on hold and the drilling rigs upped and left for West Africa or other places. Whilst the losses to the industry were no doubt huge, and there are still many complaints of a go slow, the news stream that is coming out of companies is very positive.

Last week Exxon announced not one, but three discoveries.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) today announced two major oil discoveries and a gas discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico after drilling the company's first post-moratorium deepwater exploration well.

European rival Shell, announced a major investment in a new field as well.

Shell today announced a significant, multi-billion dollar investment to develop its major Cardamom oil and gas field in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The Cardamom project is expected to produce 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) a day at peak production and more than 140 million boe over its lifetime.

Meanwhile BHP Billiton boasted of being the first to bring new production on stream since the launch of the moratorium.

BHP Billiton Petroleum announced today that it is the first company in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico to bring a newly drilled well into production since the moratorium was enacted in May 2010. The well was brought into production on 30 May 2011 on the BHP Billiton operated Shenzi field.

One more for the future, Statoil announced it was joining a Nexen project

“Our agreement is with a subsidiary of Nexen Inc. (NXY), and the partnership plans on drilling an exploration well on this attractive Miocene structure later this year,” says Statoil Exploration North America senior vice president Erik Finnstrom.

The politics may be as unpredictable as the weather in the Hurricane season, but there is still massive potential in the deep waters of the Gulf.