Noble Energy Inc., Houston, has started production at the Gunflint oil development on Mississippi Canyon Block 948 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
The two-well field is ramping up and is expected to reach minimum gross production of 20,000 boe/d, with oil representing 75% of the produced volumes. The net amount to Noble is expected to be at least 5,000 boe/d, with potential for additional volumes depending on available capacity at the third-party host facility.
The development is a subsea tie-back to the Gulfstar One facility owned by Williams Partners LP and Marubeni Corp. Noble operates Gunflint with 31.14% working interest. Partners are Ecopetrol America Inc. 31.5%, Samson Offshore Mapleleaf LLC 19.13%, and Marathon Oil Corp. 18.23%.
Over the past year, Noble has overseen the gulf startups of the Big Bend and Dantzler developments (OGJ Online, Oct. 29, 2015). It also has interest in the Marathon Oil Corp.-operated Alba B3 compression platform offshore Equatorial Guinea, where production startup was reported this month (OGJ Online, July 14, 2016).
