By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 8 -- Drilling is set begin in the second half of 2011 on the deepwater Kakuna prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Statoil, which has taken a farmin from operator Nexen Inc.
Timing depends on approval of permits by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement. Statoil said the bureau has approved the exploratory unit comprising all or parts of Green Canyon Blocks 416, 460, 504, 505, 548, and 549.
Statoil, with a 27.5% interest, said a well on Block 504, about 180 miles southwest of New Orleans, would test the Miocene structure. Nexen holds the remaining 72.5% stake.
Last year Nexen disclosed plans to drill three deepwater exploratory wells in the gulf—on the Angle Fire and Cypress prospects in addition to Kakuna—and three appraisal wells (OGJ Online, Nov. 16, 2010).
159458497 Aleksei Zakirov | Dreamstime.
Photo from Esso SAF.
