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Puma discovery adds to region’s geologic promise
Petroleum News
Rhe announced Puma oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrated once again the richness of the Atwater Fold Belt, a huge trend that has produced numerous large reservoirs in recent years and a growing reputation as the hottest play in deepwater Gulf.
Prospect owners BP, BHP Billiton and Unocal said Jan. 13 that more drilling will be required to determine Puma’s reserves, but there is no sneezing at the impressive 500 feet of net oil pay penetrated by the Puma-1 exploration well and two sidetrack bores.
“We know hydrocarbons are there and we are excited,” said a spokesman for Puma operator BP, which also operates major fields in the southeast Green Canyon that includes Holstein, Atlantis and Mad Dog, all currently under development.
In fact, Puma is situated just west of Mad Dog on Green Canyon Block 823 and, if deemed commercial, would give the owners options to develop Puma as a stand-alone facility, or as a subsea tie-back to the Mad Dog platform, expected to commence production in late 2004 or early 2005. Not ready to declare victory However, none of the owners is quite ready to declare victory at Puma, despite an oil column that ranks alongside some of the thickest pays found in the deepwater Gulf. For one, Puma has complicated geology and existing seismic imaging data used to evaluate the prospect “is of moderate quality,” said Mike Bell, vice president of Unocal’s Deepwater USA unit.
“Puma is structurally complex and will require additional seismic data and appraisal drilling to determine the size of the field,” Bell said.
Australia’s BHP agreed more work needs to be done at Puma. “This is an encouraging find ... but we’re going to have to do some more drilling and collect more data,” a company spokesman said.
Still, Bell said that the Puma 1 discovery well, drilled in a little over 4,000 feet of water to a total depth of 19,034 feet, confirmed the prolific lower and middle Miocene sands and “further enhances prospectivity in southeast Green Canyon,” where Unocal is currently drilling its Myrtle Beach prospect.
“We are very pleased with what these (Puma) results mean for the value of our prospect inventory in this area,” Bell said.
BP holds a 51.66 percent interest in Puma, followed by BHP with a 33.34 percent stake and Unocal with a 15 percent interest. Discoverer Spirit will move to deeper water Bell noted that after finishing work at Myrtle Beach, Unocal’s Discoverer Spirit drillship will move into deeper waters of the Gulf to drill an exploratory well on the Tobago prospect at Alaminos Canyon Black 859. Tobago is situated between Shell’s Great White discovery and Unocal’s Trident discovery, both located in nearly 10,000 feet of water and close to Mexico’s territorial waters.
In addition to Myrtle Beach and Tobago, Unocal’s deepwater Gulf drilling plan for 2004 includes an appraisal well at the St. Malo discovery in Walker Ridge 678.
The discovery well is said to have encountered more than 450 feet of net oil pay over a gross hydrocarbon column of 1,400 feet, indicating that St. Malo is a major hydrocarbon accumulation.
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