HOUSTON, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Royal Dutch Shell has found a potential 100 million barrels of oil at a new Gulf of Mexico exploration well, the company announced Wednesday.
Shell's Vickburg exploration well, located 120 kilometers offshore in the Mississippi Canyon Block 393 in 2.269 km of water, was drilled to a total depth of 8,042 meters and encountered more than 152 meters of net oil pay, the oil giant said in a statement published on its website.
In total, the Vicksburg discovery is estimated to hold potentially recoverable resources of more than 100 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe). It adds to the more than 500 mmboe of potentially recoverable resources that have already been discovered and appraised at a nearby site.
"The results of the Vicksburg well strengthen our existing deep- water Gulf of Mexico exploration portfolio and should contribute to the nearby Appomattox discovery," said Mark Shuster, executive vice president of Shell Upstream Americas Exploration, in the statement.
Shell is operating the well with a 75 percent interest. Nexen, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese national oil company CNOOC Ltd., owns the remaining 25 percent interest.
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