The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell announced new exploration discovery at Fort Sumter offshore well in the deep water US Gulf of Mexico. The field is located on 73 nautical miles southeast off New Orleans and has estimated recoverable resources exceeding 125 million barrels of oil equivalent. The further appraisal drilling and planned wells in adjacent structures, is expected considerably to increase recoverable potential in the vicinity of the well. Fort Sumter was drilled to a total vertical measured depth of 8,540 m, as an appraisal sidetrack well was later drilled to 8,900 m depth. The well is located in drilled in the Mississippi Canyon Block 566, which is operated by Shell with 100% interest.

“The Fort Sumter discovery builds upon Shell’s global deep-water leadership. Its proximity to our nearby discoveries in the area, and to highly prospective acreage to the southeast, makes Fort Sumter particularly significant”, said the Shell’s Executive Vice President Exploration, Ceri Powell. “These successes demonstrate there is still running room in the producing basins of our heartlands where large, high-value discoveries have the potential to further strengthen our deep-water competitiveness”, added he.

The offshore well Fort Sumter was drilled in the Mississippi Canyon Block 566, located on 73 nautical miles southeast off New Orleans. The block has total size of approximately 23 sq km with water depth of 2,152 m. The discovery

Shell’s total resources added by gulf exploration since 2010 now totals 1.3 billion boe. The global deep water unit currently produces around 600 thousand boe per day and production is expected to increase to about 900 thousand boe per day by the early 2020s from already discovered, established reservoirs.