Shell makes ‘significant’ oil find in U.S. Gulf of Mexico

May 11, 2021, by Bojan Lepic

Shell Offshore, a subsidiary of supermajor Shell, has made a ‘significant’ oil discovery in the deepwater region of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Shell said on Tuesday that it made a discovery of more than 600 feet (183 meters) net oil pay at multiple levels at the Leopard prospect. The company added that evaluation was ongoing to further define development options.

Paul Goodfellow, Shell’s deepwater executive vice president, said: “Leopard expands our leading position in the Gulf of Mexico and is an exciting addition to our core portfolio, especially given its proximity to existing infrastructure and other discoveries in the Perdido Corridor.

“With our U.S. Gulf of Mexico production among the lowest GHG intensity in the world, Shell remains confident about the Gulf of Mexico and this latest discovery will help us deliver on our strategy to focus on valuable, high margin barrels as we sustain material upstream cash flows into the 2030s“.

Shell further stated that Leopard was an opportunity to increase production in the Perdido Corridor, where Shell’s Great White, Silvertip, and Tobago fields are already producing. Meanwhile, the Whale discovery, also in the Perdido Corridor, is progressing toward a final investment decision in 2021.

It is worth adding that Shell began production in the Perdido Corridor with the Perdido spar platform in 2010.

Leopard is located in the OCS block Alaminos Canyon (AC) 691, some 20 miles (32 kilometres) east of the Whale discovery, 20 miles (32 kilometres) south of the recently appraised Blacktip discovery, and 33 miles (53 kilometres) from the Perdido host.

The prospect is located some 245 miles (394 kilometres) southeast of Houston and is 50-50 owned by Shell and Chevron, with Shell acting as the operator.

Another interesting thing is that this is Shell’s second ‘Leopard’ find. The first time the company made a find in a prospect named Leopard was in 2014 but in a different country and continent. It was actually a gas find offshore Gabon.