Shell adds third major discovery to Norphlet play in Gulf of Mexico
Shell has made its third major discovery in the Norphlet play in deepwater Gulf of Mexico with the Rydberg exploration well. “The Rydberg discovery builds upon our leadership position in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and its proximity to our other discoveries in the area make Rydberg particularly exciting,” said Marvin Odum, Shell Upstream Americas Director. “These successes represent the emergence of another hub for Shell’s deepwater activities that should generate shareholder value.”
The Rydberg well is located 75 miles (120 km) offshore in the Mississippi Canyon Block 525 in 7,479 ft (2,280 m) of water. It was drilled to 26,371 ft (8,038 m) TD and encountered more than 400 ft (122 m) of net oil pay.
Shell is completing the full evaluation of the well results but expects the resource base to be approximately 100 million bbl of oil equivalent. Together with the Appomattox and Vicksburg discoveries, this brings the total potential Norphlet discoveries to more that 700 million bbl of oil equivalent.
This is the first discovery for the partnership of Shell (operator, 57.2% interest), Ecopetrol America (28.5%) and Nexen (14.3%), an affiliate of CNOOC. The discovery is within 10 miles (16 km) of the planned Appomattox development and the 2013 Vicksburg discovery (Shell is operator with 75% interest and Nexen with 25%).
Shell and Nexen are following the Rydberg discovery with an exploratory well at Gettysburg, located in Desoto Canyon Block 398, which is also within 10 miles (16 km) of the planned Appomattox development.
