Operator Chevron said Jan. 4 that 300 feet of net oil pay has been found at the Gulf of Mexico deepwater Big Foot prospect in Walker Ridge block 29 some 225 miles south of New Orleans.

The Big Foot No. 2 discovery well is in approximately 5,000 feet of water and was drilled to a total depth of 25,127 feet, encountering as much as 300 feet or more of net oil pay, Chevron said.

Drilling is under way at a sidetrack well and Chevron said further appraisal drilling will be required to determine commercial potential of the discovery.

Chevron, which owns a 60 percent working interest in Big Foot, is the operator; Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has 15 percent, Plains Exploration and Production Co. 12.5 percent and Shell 12.5 percent.

Big Foot follows Knotty Head

“Big Foot follows our earlier success at the Knotty Head discovery and is confirmation of further potential of our exploration acreage,” said Paul Siegele, vice president of Chevron’s Gulf of Mexico deepwater business unit. Chevron is the largest overall leaseholder in the Gulf of Mexico, the company said.

Bob Daniels, Anadarko senior vice president, exploration and production, said the Big Foot discovery, following the December announcement of the Knotty Head discovery (see story in Dec. 25, 2005, issue of Petroleum News), “further validates the extensive middle-to-lower Miocene play we are aggressively pursuing within the foldbelt area.” He said that including Anadarko’s wholly owned Genghis Khan discovery, the company was “successful in three out of four foldbelt exploration wells during 2005.” Daniels said Anadarko expects to participate in five delineation and exploration wells in the first quarter of 2006. “The deepwater Gulf of Mexico will be a major piece of our overall growth plan in the coming years,” he said.

—Petroleum News