Stone Energy, an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company, has announced that its Amethyst well, in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, will come online in January 2016.
According to Stone’s operational update from Monday, the Ensco 8503 deep water drilling rig concluded completion operations and a well test at the Amethyst well, located in Mississippi Canyonblock 26, in mid-December 2015. The flowline and umbilical hookup is expected to start upon departure of the rig.
The well is expected to come online on schedule by January 2016, with an expected initial production rate of approximately 40-60 million cubic feet of gas equivalent per day (Mmcfepd) after clean-up. The project is a tie-back to Stone’s Pompano platform, located less than five miles from the discovery, and Stone holds a 100% working interest.
Cardona well
After Amethyst, Stone says it plans to mobilize the Ensco 8503 rig to drill and complete the Cardona #7 development well in Mississippi Canyonblock 29. The well is an offset to the existing TB-9 well and will be Stone’s fourth well drilled in the Cardona field development program. Drilling and completion operations are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016. Production is projected to start in the second quarter of 2016 and is expected to reach 4,000 to 5,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (Boepd), the company said.
Stone holds a 65% working interest and is the operator of the project.
Tiaras well
Stone also reported that, in the fourth quarter of 2015, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) spud the Tiaras-1 exploration well, which is located approximately three miles southwest of Stone’s Lamprey exploration prospect in Alaminos Canyon block 943 in the Gulf of Mexico. The Tiaras-1 well is expected to provide helpful information relative to the Lamprey prospect, Stone explained. If the Tiaris-1 well is successful, the Lamprey well is projected to spud in 2016. The initial Lamprey well is estimated to take two to three months to drill and, if successful, Stone may drill a follow-up appraisal well.
Discussions with potential partners regarding the 100% owned Lamprey and Derbio prospects are ongoing with a reduction in working interest expected before drilling either well. Additionally, Stone continues to pursue rig farm-out opportunities as well as potential projects that could utilize the Ensco 8503 rig and require an operator.
During the first week of November 2015, Stone mobilized and installed an H&P platform drilling rig on its Pompano platform to begin a development drilling program, consisting of one workover project and three to four development wells. The workover will be the first well of the program and is expected to start in the first week of January 2016.
Eni’s Vernaccia
Elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, drilling operations at the deep water Vernaccia exploration prospect, located in Mississippi Canyon block 35, were completed in November 2015. The well was spud in October and drilled to a depth of approximately 17,800 feet, encountered no commercial hydrocarbons and has been plugged and abandoned. Stone holds a 22% working interest, but only a 4% drilling cost in the project, for an estimated net dry hole cost to Stone of approximately $3 million.