MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

BP announces giant deep oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico

The Tiber well was drilled to a depth of almost 11.000 metres

British Petroleum announced Wednesday a giant oil discovery at its Tiber Prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The well, located in Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 400 kilometres south east of Houston, is in 1,259 metres of water.

The Tiber well, which was began last March, was drilled to a total depth of approximately 10,685 metres making it one of the deepest wells ever drilled by the oil and gas industry.

According to a BP release, the well found oil in multiple Lower Tertiary reservoirs although appraisal will be required to determine the size and commerciality of the discovery.

“Tiber represents BP's second material discovery in the emerging Lower Tertiary play in the Gulf of Mexico, following our earlier Kaskida discovery” said Andy Inglis, chief executive, Exploration and Production.

“These material discoveries together with our industry leading acreage position support the continuing growth of our deepwater Gulf of Mexico business into the second half of the next decade” he added.

The industry-wide definition for a “giant” discovery is at least 250 million barrels of oil “in place”, or in other words, the likely total amount, BP spokeswoman Sheila Williams said. But usually, only as much as 30% is extracted from the ground in practice.

Tiber is operated by BP with a 62% working interest with co-owners Petrobras 20% and ConocoPhillips 18%.

BP shares rose 3.8% to £5.38, making it the biggest gainer in the FTSE 100.

BP has a leading acreage position in the emerging Lower Tertiary area of the Gulf of Mexico and its first major discovery in that area was Kaskida in 2006, which is currently under appraisal.

The British energy giant is the largest producer of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico with net production of over 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. BP is progressing nine Gulf of Mexico projects: Atlantis Phase 2, Tubular Bells, Kodiak, Freedom, Kaskida, Isabela, Santa Cruz, Mad Dog tiebacks and Great White.

Major BP developments in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico include: Pompano, 1994; Marlin, 2000; Horn Mountain, 2002; Na Kika, 2003; Holstein, 2004; Mad Dog, 2005, Atlantis, 2007, Thunder Horse 2008.