Kosmos comes up dry in Oldfield well in Gulf of Mexico

U.S. oil and gas company Kosmos Energy has completed drilling the Oldfield exploration well located in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, but failed to find hydrocarbons. 

The well is operated by Kosmos with a 40% interest with Hess as a partner with a 60% interest. It was spud in December 2019, using the Valaris 8503 semi-submersible drilling rig.

Kosmos said in an update on Wednesday that the Oldfield was designed to test a sub-salt Miocene prospect located in Mississippi Canyon, targeting approximately 10 mmboe net to Kosmos.

According to the oil company, the well did not encounter commercial quantities of hydrocarbons and will now be plugged and abandoned.

The Oldfield well is located in approximately 1,500 meters of water and was drilled to a total depth of approximately 6,500 meters.

Kosmos expects to record approximately $24 million of exploration expense related to the drilling of the Oldfield exploration well, split about 60:40 between 4Q 2019 and 1Q 2020.

Following the abandonment of the Oldfield well, the Valaris 8503 rig will move to the Kodiak field to begin drilling and completion operations on a new infill producer well.

Kosmos last year awarded a six-well contract, plus one 140-day option, to the Valaris 8503 rig. The contract started in September 2019 and it is expected to end in April 2020. Before the contract with Kosmos, the rig worked for Apache and before Apache, it worked for Talos.

Kosmos added it plans to drill three additional infrastructure-led exploration (ILX) wells in the Gulf of Mexico in 2020.

It is also worth reminding that Kosmos in November 2019 completed drilling the Resolution exploration well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, but the primary exploration objective proved to be water-bearing.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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