Anadarko will be looking to further appraise the Shenandoah area in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico this year to prove up what the company considers to be one of the largest discoveries in the region.

After its Shenandoah-2 well, which encountered more than 330 m (1,000 ft) of pay in “multiple, high quality” Lower Tertiary reservoirs, and other nearby discoveries at Coronado and Yucatan, the US-based explorer says it will be accelerating appraisal of the Shenandoah basin area this year. An appraisal well at Coronado is already underway. Here Anadarko is due to become operator after the current appraisal well, and a rig is committed to drill a Shenandoah delineation well starting in the second quarter of this year.

A first Yucatan appraisal well kicked off after the year-end and is currently drilling ahead, targeting an area 330 m (1,000 ft) down-dip from the Yucatan-1 discovery well, with a planned total depth of 10,060 m (33,000 ft).

A Deep Nansen well in East Breaks 645 is also ongoing, targeting a Lower Tertiary four-way structure below Anadarko’s operated Nansen field.

Also in the GoM, Anadarko will in Garden Banks Block 213 seek to test a sub-salt Miocene prospect called Bimini in the north-eastern corner of the area, near the Baldpate platform and also close to the Anadarko-operated Conger and Power Play fields. This well has a target total depth of 7,012 m (23,000 ft), and is being drilled in a water depth of 274 m (900 ft).

After its 2013 deepwater exploration programme Anadarko says it achieved a 67% success rate.

Offshore