Seadrill drillship returns for fresh Buckskin well in deepwater Gulf of Mexico

U.S. Gulf of Mexico operator LLOG has started drilling operations on the third development well on Buckskin, its deepwater oil project located in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. LLOG is using the same rig for the new well as the one used for the initial phase of the development.

According to available information, Seadrill’s drillship West Neptune has recently arrived at the drilling location at the northern reservoir of the Buckskin project and started drilling operations.

The Buckskin project is located in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, on Keathley Canyon blocks 785, 828, 829, 830, 871 and 872 in approximately 6,800 feet (2,073 meters) of water and was delineated by multiple prior wells. The drilling location is approximately 267 miles southwest of New Orleans, in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Buckskin partnership is composed of Navitas Buckskin US LLC2 (7.5 per cent), Buckstone Development Company (28.8 per cent), Repsol (22.5 per cent), Ridgewood Buckskin (8.75 per cent), ILX Prospect Buckskin (8.75 per cent), Beacon Offshore (18.7 per cent), and LLOG Deepwater Development Company (5 per cent).

The partnership approved the drilling to develop the additional reserves in the development well in July 2021 after which the securing of drilling permit from the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) followed.

According to an update from one of the partners, drilling operations are expected to take 60 days and the production from the well is expected towards the end of the second quarter of 2022. Based on the operator’s estimate of the available capacity at the Lucius platform, the production from Buckskin is expected to reach about 46,000 barrels of oil once the drilling is completed.

Offshore Energy has reached out to LLOG as the operator of the project, seeking confirmation and further details about drilling operations but we are yet to receive a response.

The West Neptune drillship was also used for drilling and completing the Buckskin reservoir before the field was brought on stream in June 2019. The initial phase of the project consists of two wells in Keathley Canyon 829 and a six-mile subsea tieback to the Lucius platform at Keathley Canyon 875.

The first well was designed to produce from five separate zones, and the second well targeted three distinct zones. Once fully established, the phase one production rate at Buckskin was anticipated to reach 30,000 barrels of oil per day.

The Buckskin field is estimated to contain nearly five billion barrels of oil in place. In order to fully develop it, additional wells and subsea facilities will be needed after the initial phase and that is where current operations come in.

According to Seadrill’s latest fleet status report, the West Neptune drillship has been under contract with LLOG in the Gulf of Mexico since August 2021 with the expiration date for the firm part of the deal set for March 2022. After that, LLOG has options from March until June and from June until July 2022. Before this, the 2014-built drillship worked for Kosmos Energy, also in the Gulf of Mexico.

Israel’s Navitas Petroleum also holds interest in another Gulf of Mexico project, the Shenandoah. The project was sanctioned in August and the contract for the design, procurement, construction, and delivery of a floating production system (FPS) and its installation on the Shenandoah field was awarded to Hyundai Heavy.

Shenandoah is located 160 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the Walker Ridge area of the Gulf of Mexico. Beacon is the operator of the project following its acquisition of interest from LLOG. Beacon’s co-owner ShenHai is a subsidiary of Israel’s Navitas Petroleum.