Deepwater discoveries signal life in offshore sector - Houston Chronicle
▻http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Deepwater-discoveries-signal-life-in-offshore-12541700.php
Some of the world’s biggest oil companies announced this week that they’ve made major deepwater discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea, signaling that the moribund offshore energy sector is coming back to life as rising oil prices and lower development costs hold the promise of new profits.
Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and the French company Total revealed their discoveries within a 24-hour period Tuesday and Wednesday, shifting attention from the Permian Basin in West Texas, which has become the center of the industry’s rebound from the last oil bust. This new activity offshore could provide a much needed boost to the explorers, drillers and equipment makers that employ tens of thousands of people in the Houston area.
[…]
Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil major, said Wednesday that it struck a potentially major oil payload while drilling to 23,000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles south of Houston. Chevron, the second largest U.S. oil company, owns a 40 percent stake in the well, dubbed the “Whale.”
The discovery is near an area where Shell already has developed wells, about 10 miles from its massive Perdido platform, which is moored at 8,000 feet underwater.