Beacon begins oil, gas production from Zephyrus field in US Gulf

Beacon Offshore Energy LLC, Houston, has started oil and natural gas production from Zephyrus field in the Gulf of Mexico. Initial well production began in late December 2025.

The Miocene aged development lies in Mississippi Canyon Block 759, about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans, La., in water depths of 3,100-3,600 ft.

The Zephyrus discovery well (Zephyrus #1) was drilled by Beacon in 2023, encountering high quality oil in the Middle Miocene Cris “I” aged M2 sand (M2), the company noted in its Jan. 16 release.

Beacon and partners worked with Shell Offshore Inc. to connect Zephyrus field to the existing Shell-operated West Boreas subsea infrastructure for further processing on the Shell-operated Olympus tension-leg production platform in the Mars Corridor. The infrastructure-led development resulted in reduced emissions, lower development costs, and shortened time to first oil, Beacon said, and was further made possible by incorporating a High Integrity Pressure Protection System into the 9-mi. Zephyrus subsea infrastructure.

Beacon drilled a second well in Zephyrus field (Zephyrus #2) reaching total measured depth of 26,270 ft. The well encountered 116 net ft of pay including in the M2 sand currently producing in the Zephyrus #1 well and two additional high quality Miocene sands in the M0 and UM1. Beacon is currently conducting completion operations and expects to begin production from Zephyrus #2 by the end of this year’s first quarter.

Beacon is operator of the Zephyrus development. Partners are Houston Energy, HEQ II, Red Willow Offshore, Westlawn Americas Offshore, and Murphy Exploration & Production.