BP, Texaco make GOM oil discovery

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

BP and Texaco said June 21 they have found oil in some 7,000 feet of water in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico. The discovery well was drilled by BP (77.5 percent) on behalf of itself and partner Texaco (22.5 percent) on a prospect called Blind Faith. The well was drilled to a total depth exceeding 25,000 feet. Blind Faith was the first well drilled by the dynamically positioned semi-submersible drilling rig Ocean Confidence, owned by Diamond Offshore Drilling Co.

The discovery was made on Mississippi Canyon Block 696, approximately 175 miles Southeast of New Orleans, some 20 miles East of BP’s Crazy Horse discovery, the largest field ever discovered in the Gulf of Mexico.