Shell hits black gold in Gulf of America

December 23, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

A U.S. subsidiary of the UK-headquartered energy giant Shell has found more oil during drilling operations with one of Transocean’s drillships in the U.S. Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico).

Deepwater Proteus drillship; Source: Transocean

A new oil discovery in the Nashville well was revealed by Shell’s partner, INEOS Energy, which claims that this marks its first successful exploration well in the region. This discovery could be tied back to the nearby Appomattox production platform, which is operated by the UK giant’s subsidiary and jointly owned with INEOS.

The well, which was drilled more than five miles beneath the seabed using Transocean’s Deepwater Proteus seventh-generation drillship, confirmed high-quality oil in what is considered to be one of the U.S. Gulf’s most promising deepwater formations.

David Bucknall, CEO of INEOS Energy, commented: “This is a good result for INEOS Energy and an important step in building our presence in the U.S. Gulf where world-class resources are to be found and developed responsibly.

“We believe Nashville will help strengthen energy security and provide reliable supplies for many years to come.”

According to the operator’s partner, further technical work is now under way to determine the size of the find. Shell, as the operator, has a 79% stake in this asset and INEOS holds the remaining 21% working interest.

Heather Osecki, CEO of INEOS Energy’s U.S. Gulf business, remarked: “The drilling results at Nashville are very encouraging and fully in line with what we hoped to find.

“This discovery is an important first step in our plans to grow our existing assets while we look to further strengthen our position in the Gulf. We look forward to continuing our work to bring further value to the Appomattox host platform.”

This discovery comes on the heels of Shell’s final investment decision for the Kaikias waterflood project in the Gulf of America, which is estimated to boost recoverable resource volume by around 60 million metric barrels of oil equivalent (P50).