W&T Offshore announces new deepwater Gulf of Mexico discovery

W&T Offshore Inc. has announced a significant discovery at the Ewing Banks 954 A-8 exploratory well located in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The well recently reached total depth, and represents the second discovery in a two-well drilling program from the EW 910 platform. This second well follows the earlier discovery at the ST 320 A-5 well in May 2015, which was also drilled from the EW 910 platform. W&T is operator of EW 910 field and owns a 50% working interest in the well.

The EW 954 A-8 well penetrated a total of 150 ft of measured depth hydrocarbon pay contained in two sands. Completion operations are currently underway with a planned two-zone completion. Following facility tie-in, first production is expected during 1Q16. Although no well flow tests have been conducted, based on formation evaluation data, we currently anticipate producing the well from the two zones at a restrained gross rate of approximately 2300 boe/d.

Tracy Krohn, W&T Offshore's Chairman and CEO, stated: "Based on our seismic analysis, we had high expectations for the reserve potential of the EW 954 A-8 exploration well, and we are delighted that the well appears to have exceeded our pre-drill estimates. We are especially pleased with the high quality pay sands found in the A-8 well, which should allow for higher reserve recovery. This discovery also helps de-risk several additional opportunities we have identified as part of our future plans to drill and develop the area. With this discovery we have extended our track record of 100% exploration success with the drill bit to almost three years."

Edited from press release by Angharad Lock

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/15122015/w-t-offshore-new-deepwater-gulf-of-mexico-discovery-1809/