Shell Offshore Inc. said it has made one of its largest discoveries in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM), hitting more than 427 m (1,400 net ft) of oil-bearing pay in the Perdido area.

Located in Alaminos Canyon Block 772 near the Shell-operated Silvertip Field and Perdido platform, the Whale discovery is in about 2,438 m (8,000 ft) of water. Drilling operations for the well were completed in June 2017 to a depth of about 6,995 m (22,948 ft), Shell said in a news release.

“Today’s announcement shows how, through exploration, we are sustaining a strong pipeline of discoveries and future projects to sustain this deep-water growth,” Andy Brown, upstream director for Royal Dutch Shell, said in the statement.

The company said evaluation of the discovery is ongoing, and appraisal drilling is underway to further delineate the discovery and define development options.

Whale is operated by Shell (60%) and co-owned by Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (40%).

The discovery adds to Shell’s Paleogene exploration success in the Perdido area. The company has added more than 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources through exploration in the last decade in the GoM, the release said.

Offshore