Kosmos Energy has completed drilling the Oldfield exploration well in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and the well failed to find oil.
Oldfield was designed to test a sub-salt Miocene prospect located in Mississippi Canyon, targeting approximately 10 mmboe net to Kosmos which owns 40 percent in the block, with Hess owning 60 percent.
"The well did not encounter commercial quantities of hydrocarbons and will now be plugged and abandoned," Kosmos said Wednesday
The Oldfield well is located in approximately 1,500 meters of water and was drilled to a total depth of approximately 6,500 meters.
"Kosmos expects to record approximately $24 million of exploration expense related to the drilling of the Oldfield exploration well, split ~60:40 between 4Q19 and 1Q20," Kosmos said.
Kosmos' previous Gulf of Mexico well, the Resolution, which it drilled with BP the underexplored western Garden Banks area also failed to find oil, as announced in November 2019.
Following the abandonment of the Oldfield well, the Valaris 8503 semi-submersible drilling rig will move to the Kodiak field to begin drilling and completion operations on a new infill producer well, Kosmos said Wednesday. Kosmos plans to drill three additional infrastructure-led exploration ("ILX") wells in the Gulf of Mexico in 2020.