Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

The next region of the World Ocean, where petroleum exploration
has extended beyond the shelf, is the Gulf of Mexico (US sector). This
region was the world’s leader in deep-sea drilling depth of 2330 m in 1988.
At present, the deepest offshore well site depth is 2354 m, and the greatest
depth, 2324 m. However, even these achievements are likely to be
surpassed in the near future. In July this year, UNOCAL will start to carry
out a drilling programme of seven wildcat wells in the Alaminos Canyon
at depths between 2930 to 3000 m of sea water 11 .
By the beginning of 2000, a total of 148 oil and gas fields had been
discovered below 200 to 2324 m of seawater. Of that, 49 are producing,
and 112 fields were discovered in more than 500 m of seawater (figure 10).
The deepest offshore producing field is the Mensa gas field, 1625 m, and
the largest is the Crazy Horse field discovered in the Mississippi canyon in
1999 1830 m of sea water.
Total demonstrated reserves of all 148 fields are estimated as 1300
Mmtoe oil and 1130 Gm 3 gas; of that, 985–1060 Mmtoe occur in more than
500 m of seawater, including 217 Mmtoe proven reserves. Current oil
production from the deepwater discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico is about
38 Mmt per annum.
Figure 10: Deepwater discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico (modified from De Luca 11 )
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