By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 17 -- The Blackbeard West No. 1 exploration test well, operated by ExxonMobil Corp. on South Timbalier Block 168 in 70 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico, encountered a thin gas-bearing sand below 30,000 ft, but failed to reach its primary targets because of higher than expected pressure, reported Houston-based Newfield Exploration Co., an interest owner.
David A. Trice, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Newfield, said, "This has been a challenging well to test—a true frontier play—but Newfield is sufficiently encouraged to continue investing in this play."
ExxonMobil is preparing to temporarily abandon the well, which reached TD of 30,067 ft.
To date, Newfield has invested about $25 million (net) in drilling the Blackbeard West-1 well, which covers multiple blocks in the South Timbalier and Ship Shoal areas off Louisiana.
Blackbeard West, part of a group of deep shelf prospects known as Treasure Island and generated by Newfield and a predecessor, is thought to have potential for several trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas in Miocene and older sections (OGJ Online, Feb. 10, 2005).
The prospect is subject to a 1.25% overriding royalty interest held by the Treasure Island Royalty Trust.
The working interests in the prospect are ExxonMobil 25%, Newfield 23%, BP Exploration & Production Inc. 20%, Petrobras America Inc. 20%, Dominion Exploration & Production Inc. 7%, and BHP Billiton Petroleum (Deepwater) Inc. 5%.
