USA: No Commercial Oil at Cobalt’s Ligurian Well

Cobalt International Energy, Inc. today announced that its Ligurian #2 exploratory well on Green Canyon Block 814 in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico had reached objective total depth after having drilled through all of the targeted Miocene formations.

The well failed to encounter commercial hydrocarbons and will be plugged and abandoned.

Once these plugging operations are finished, Cobalt will move the Ensco 8503 drilling rig to its North Platte #1 exploratory well location on Garden Banks Block 959. The North Platte Prospect is a large 4-way Inboard Lower Tertiary structure. This well lies within Cobalt’s greater North Platte complex, consisting of the North Platte Prospect, as well as four adjacent Inboard Lower Tertiary prospects.

According to an independent third-party assessment, the gross unrisked resources for the North Platte Prospect are estimated to be 400 – 850 million barrels of oil equivalent (mean to high range), and the combined gross unrisked resources for the greater North Platte complex is estimated to be more than two billion barrels of oil equivalent. The North Platte #1 well, which is expected to take five to six months to drill and evaluate, is located approximately 40 miles northwest of Cobalt’s Shenandoah discovery.

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Offshore Energy Today Staff, June 13, 2012