Stone Energy discovers oil at Cardona South well in Gulf of Mexico

Stone Energy Corporation today announced success on the deep water Cardona South well at Mississippi Canyon 29. Stone operates and owns a 65% working interest in the well.

The Cardona South well (MC 29 #5 well) encountered over 275 feet of net oil pay in three separate sections of the well. The Cardona South success extends the productive zone of the Mississippi Canyon 29 TB-9 well to the adjacent fault block to the south and sets up a potential second and third well in the fault block. Plans are to flow the Cardona South well (and the previously announced Cardona discovery) to the Stone owned and operated Pompano platform with first production expected in early 2015.

Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer David H. Welch stated, “The success of the Cardona South well and the previously announced Cardona well allows us to move forward with our accelerated development program. We expect to begin production early in 2015, less than one year after spudding the first Cardona well, and we expect volumes from these two wells to more than double our deep water oil production. These two successful wells, combined with the Amethyst and Tomcat discoveries in February, have provided a great start to our 2014 exploration and development drilling program.”

Production casing has been set and cemented in the Cardona South well and the subsea tree equipment will be put in place. The rig will then move back to the original Cardona well (MC 29 #4 well) to commence completion operations before returning to complete the Cardona South well. Separately, the original Cardona well was previously estimated to have approximately 84 feet of net oil pay. After further evaluation, the estimated net oil pay for this well is now approximately 96 feet.