Appraisal of black gold discovery coming up next year in Gulf of America

November 6, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Houston-based energy player Talos Energy is setting the stage to undertake appraisal activities in 2026 at its recent oil discovery in the Gulf of America (U.S. Gulf of Mexico), which was drilled with a drillship owned by Seadrill, an offshore drilling contractor.

Vela drillship (former West Vela); Source: Diamond Offshore, now part of Noble Corporation

After revealing its drilling results at the Daenerys exploration prospect located on Walker Ridge blocks 106, 107, 150, and 151, Talos explained that the discovery well was drilled to a total vertical depth of 33,228 feet, utilizing the West Vela deepwater drillship. This black gold find encountered oil pay in multiple high-quality, sub-salt Miocene sands.

Drilled approximately 12 days ahead of schedule, the well, which was delivered around $16 million under budget, has been temporarily suspended to preserve its future utility. Talos plans to drill an appraisal well in the second quarter of 2026 to further define the discovered resource.

The U.S. player claims to feel encouraged by the results of the Daenerys discovery well, which confirms the presence of oil and validates the firm’s geologic and geophysical models. Talos, as operator, holds a 27% working interest. The rest is held by the company’s partners, including Shell Offshore (22.5%), Red Willow (22.5%), Houston Energy (10%), HEQ II Daenerys (9%), and Cathexis (9%).

Talos upping its hydrocarbon production ante in U.S. Gulf

The U.S. operator elaborates that the absence of storm activity, strong base performance across the asset base, and facility uptime allowed it to exceed production expectations during the third quarter of 2025, as the firm’s operated Tarantula facility, which processes production from the Katmai field, achieved a sustained output of over 36 million barrels of oil equivalent pe day (boe/d) through debottlenecking efforts.

After the company replaced the surface-controlled subsurface safety valve (SCSSV) at Sunspear in late September 2025, the well came back online, and the hydrocarbon production is currently flowing to the firm’s Prince facility. While Talos owns a 48% working interest in the well, an entity managed by Ridgewood Energy Corporation has a 47.5% stake, and Houston Energy holds a 4.5% interest.

The Texas-headquartered firm plans to develop a large Wilcox oil discovery, known as Monument, in Walker Ridge blocks 271, 272, 315, and 316 as a subsea tie-back to the Shenandoah production platform with committed firm capacity of 20,000 barrels of oil per day. While Talos expects to start drilling the first well by the early first quarter of 2026, the start-up of production is anticipated to be between 20–30 million boe/d gross by late 2026.

There is an additional drilling location adjacent to the discovery with an estimated 25–35 million barrels of oil equivalent, which could extend the resource. Beacon Offshore Energy, as operator, holds a 41.7% stake, while the rest is held by its partners, encompassing Talos (29.7%) and Navitas Petroleum (28.6%).

Paul Goodfellow, President and Chief Executive Officer of Talos, commented: “As we continue to execute our strategy, we are seeing clear, measurable results as evidenced by an outstanding third quarter of production outperformance, capital discipline and expense management. […]

“Operationally, we announced a successful exploration discovery at Daenerys and plan to drill an appraisal well in the second quarter of 2026 to further delineate this exciting discovery. In the third quarter, the absence of storm activity, strong base performance from our assets, and solid facility uptime contributed to production results that exceeded expectations.”