Chevron Strikes Oil at Anchor

Pacific Drilling’s Pacific Santa Ana drillship, image (c) Chevron

Not literally at anchor as in moored, but rather Chevron struck oil while drilling at the Anchor prospect in Green Canyon within the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Utilizing Pacific Drilling’s  dynamically-positioned drillship Pacific Santa Ana, Chevron drilled over six miles into the earth to reach the Lower Tertiary trend where the company says a “significant” oil discovery was made.  This discovery comes roughly five months after the well was spudded-in last August.

“The Anchor discovery, along with the previously announced Guadalupe discovery, are significant finds for us in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. We had one of our best years with the drill bit in 2014, reporting more than 30 discoveries worldwide and adding an estimated one billion barrels of new resources to our holdings,” said Jay Johnson, senior vice president, Upstream, Chevron Corporation.

The Green Canyon Block 807 Well No. 2 is located approximately 140 miles (225 km) off the coast of Louisiana in 5,183 feet (1,580 m) of water and was drilled to a total vertical depth of 33,749 feet (10,287 m).   Chevron says appraisal drilling will begin this year.

“Chevron’s leading position in the Gulf, where we are expecting further growth in the near-term from recent project startups at Jack/St. Malo and Tubular Bells, is further underpinned by this discovery,” said Jeff Shellebarger, president, Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company. “We currently have five deepwater drillships operating in the Gulf, two of which are focused on exploration activities.”

??Chevron subsidiary Chevron U.S.A. Inc. is the operator of the field, with a 55 percent working interest in the Anchor prospect. Anchor co-owners are Cobalt International Energy, Inc. (20 %), Samson Offshore Anchor, LLC (12.5 %); and Venari Resources LLC (12.5 %).

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