Kosmos announces Winterfell oil find in US Gulf of Mexico - S&P Global

Houston — Kosmos Energy unveiled Jan. 19 an oil discovery in the US deepwater Gulf of Mexico, which the company plans to move toward appraisal and development options with its multiple partners.

The Winterfell well, a subsalt Upper Miocene prospect at Green Canyon Block 944 offshore Louisiana in the Central US Gulf, encountered about 85 feet of net pay in two intervals, Kosmos, which has a minority 17.5% working interest, said in a statement.

The well, operated by an affiliate of privately held Beacon Offshore Energy, is located in about 5,300 feet of water.

The discovery well, the product of infrastructure-led (ILX) exploration, was drilled to a total depth of about 23,000 feet.

ILX exploration, which has featured prominently in upstream operators' portfolios in recent years of relatively low oil prices, is exploration around producing hubs that can be easily and cheaply hooked up to those facilities. The development thus sidesteps the need for costly and time-consuming individual hub construction.

Kosmos doesn't currently operate producing platforms, but instead operates subsea tiebacks or well hook-ups to platforms owned and operated by other companies, company spokesman Thomas Golembeski said.

"Exploration success at Winterfell validat[es] our proven basin exploration strategy, which is focused on low-cost, short-cycle, low-carbon development," Kosmos CEO Andy Inglis said. "The well in Green Canyon Block 944 de-risks prospectively in several neighboring blocks held by Kosmos with approximately 100 million barrels of gross potential within Kosmos' acreage position."

'Consistent with pre-drill estimates'

More work needs to be done to determine the volume with more precision, but the initial resource estimate is "consistent with our pre-drill analysis," Golembeski, said.

Kosmos' third-quarter 2020 presentation put the gross resource of Winterfell, a hub-scale project, at up to 200 million barrels of oil.

Additional interest owners in Winterfell include several other privately held independents, including Red Willow Offshore, Ridgewood Energy, CSL Exploration, CL&F Offshore, and Houston Energy.

Kosmos said it plans going forward to work with partners on an appraisal plan and development options. The discovery is located within tieback distance of several existing and planned production host facilities, including Oxy's Heidelberg facility, which Golembeski said is "one nearby option" for development.

The company also plans to drill the Zora well, another ILX project, later this year, Golembeski said. That well is located in the US Gulf's DeSoto Canyon area east of the Winterfell hub and will be drilled with partner Ridgewood Energy.