Kosmos completes drilling work on Oldfield exploration well

Kosmos Energy announced today that it has completed drilling the Oldfield exploration well in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Oldfield was designed to test a sub-salt Miocene prospect located in Mississippi Canyon, targeting approximately 10 million BOE net to Kosmos. 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 m of water and was drilled to a total depth of approximately 6,500 m. Kosmos expects to record approximately $24 million of exploration expense related to the drilling of the Oldfield exploration well, split approximately 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 plans to drill three additional infrastructure-led exploration wells in the Gulf of Mexico in 2020.

Kosmos holds a 40% ownership stake in Oldfield, with Hess owning the remaining 60%.