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UK supermajor BP has scored potentially the biggest find yet in the Lower Tertiary formation of the deep-water Gulf of Mexico.
BP refers to it as a “giant” discovery encouraging talk of a potential multiple billion-barrel accumulation. The well in Keathley Canyon Block 102 - drilled to a total depth of around 35,055 feet, a world record for vertical depth - found oil in multiple Lower Tertiary reservoirs. BP explained that appraisal work will be required to determine the size and commerciality of the find. Tiber is the second huge discovery for BP in the Lower Tertiary following the Kaskida find revealed in 2006.
Tiber is roughly 20 miles north-west of Kaskida. The information from Tiber is “encouraging” for more deep-water development in the Lower Tertiary.
However, BP will have to develop new completion methods to address the “technological challenges” of bringing high-pressure, high-temperature wells on production at Kaskida and Tiber. A spokesman confirmed that an appraisal well is under way at Kaskida and another will be spudded in 2010, leading up to a well test in 2011.
While the oil appears to be there in great quantity, just how much it will flow out of the Lower Tertiary is the biggest question in the minds of BP and partners like Brazilian operator Petrobras, who is about to bring the first Lower Tertiary discovery in the US Gulf on stream in mid-2010 at the Cascade and Chinook fields.
Petrobras is a 20% stakeholder in Tiber and according to Petrobras America upstream senior vice president Gustavo Amaral, the Kaskida and Tiber discoveries indicate that the Lower Tertiary “could be bigger than anticipated”.
Transocean's semi-submersible rig Deepwater Horizon spudded the Tiber well in mid-March in a water depth of 4132 feet, some 250 miles south-east of Houston.
That water depth is well within the range of conventional tension-leg platform technology, which is one of the preferred solutions for dry tree completions.
The rig moved off Tiber's location about a month or so ago. An appraisal drilling schedule needs to be agreed among the partners in Tiber but as far as Petrobras is concerned, it is ready to return to Tiber and drill next year.
Tiber is operated by BP with a 62% working interest with co-owners Petrobras holds 20% and ConocoPhillips has 18%.
