Kosmos Hits Dry Well At Moneypenny In Gulf Of Mexico

Kosmos Energy has failed to find oil at its Moneypenny prospect in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

The company on Monday said the Moneypenny prospect, drilled in Mississippi Canyon Block 214 in late October 2019, had been unsuccessful.

“The well, which was targeting net resources of approximately 9 million barrels of oil equivalent, was designed as an inexpensive exploration tail of the Odd Job development well and cost around $3.5 million,” Kosmos said in its 3Q report.

Kosmos, which was recently four new deepwater blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, said that its U.S. Gulf of Mexico production averaged approximately 25,800 boepd net (82% oil) during the third quarter.

The production figures exceeded the high end of the company’s guidance range despite experiencing downtime from Hurricane Barry equivalent to approximately 1,500 boepd for the quarter.

“The strong third-quarter production was driven primarily by Odd Job, capitalizing upon spare capacity aboard Delta House [platform] , as well as initial production from Gladden Deep, the first successful well in the 2019 ILX program in the basin,” the company said.

ILX stands for infrastructure-led exploration which is aimed at areas where Kosmos has existing production and where there is sufficient midstream capacity to enable the development of new discoveries via subsea tieback faster.

During the third quarter, Kosmos Energy generated a net income of $16 million, compared to a $126 million loss in the third quarter of 2018.

Total net production in the third quarter of 2019 averaged approximately 68,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day.