American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019 - 88

SpecialReport: Gulf of Mexico Update
Digging deeper into the sale's results shows that the overwhelming majority of high bids by both independents and
majors were submitted on a 100 percent working interest basis,
although independents also partnered with their peers as well as
major and international companies on bids for deepwater tracts.
Some of the more interesting examples of the latter, and perhaps
a harbinger of things to come in the Gulf, include Chevron and
Fieldwood partnering 80/20 to submit high bids on Mississippi
Canyon blocks 119, 163 and 206, BP and LLOG Exploration
teaming 50/50 on Mississippi Canyon 346, Equinor and Kosmos
bidding 50/50 on Keathley Canyon 964, and Fieldwood partnering
with Ecopetrol and Talos Energy on Mississippi Canyon 904
(59, 31.5 and 9.5 percent interests, respectively).
So what activities are the subject of independents' focus in
the Gulf, a basin that ranks second only to the mighty Permian
in daily oil output? What are their plans for exploring acreage
acquired in recent lease sales, as well as developing existing
fields and assets they have picked up through acquisitions?
At Sale 252, Houston-based EnVen Energy Corporation was
high bidder on five of the six tracts for which it submitted
offers, all in deep water: Mississippi Canyon 107, Green Canyon
37, and Atwater Valley blocks 399, 487 and 488. EnVen was
also high bidder on five blocks at last August's Sale 251: Grand
Isle Area, South Addition 104; Ewing Bank 525; Mississippi

EnVen Energy Corporation was high bidder on five deepwater
blocks at Sale 252 in March, as well as five blocks at last August's
Sale 251. The company also has made a name for itself in the Gulf
acquisition and divestiture market with a series of acquisitions
of producing deepwater properties, including "transformative acquisitions" of the Lobster, Petronius and Neptune fields from
Marathon, and the Brutus and Glider fields from Shell. Shown
here is the Lobster Field platform in Ewing Bank 873.

88 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Canyon 239; and Atwater Valley blocks 398 and 444.
But reflecting a strategy that Chief Financial Officer John
Wilkirson describes as "identifying and executing drill bit opportunities in existing, adjacent and acquired mid-life deepwater
assets," the company also has made a name for itself in the Gulf
acquisition and divestiture market. Beginning in late 2014,
EnVen purchased Shell's and then ENI's interests in the Cognac
Field, followed in 2015 by acquiring the Lobster, Petronius and
Neptune fields from Marathon, and ExxonMobil's interest in
the Main Pass Field, and in 2016, the Brutus and Glider fields
from Shell.
Transformative Acquisitions
"The Marathon and the 2016 Shell deals were both transformative property acquisitions that set us up for long-term
organic growth through the drill bit," Wilkirson says, noting
that after closing on the Brutus and Glider deals, EnVen
launched multiwell platform drilling programs at both the
Lobster and Brutus fields.
"Our strategy has been to be fairly choosy and acquire
assets, preferably through direct negotiations with the seller,"
Wilkirson says. "We seek assets that we can operate, are oily,
have upside reserve potential and come with facility infrastructure.
Lately, it has been a buyer's market in the limited number of
companies looking to acquire assets, which has been beneficial
to us."
He adds that EnVen plans to continue keeping an eye out for
attractive asset acquisition opportunities while also participating
in federal lease sales, conducting exploration drilling on new
leases, and maintaining active development drilling programs
in existing fields.
The platform drilling programs are primarily multiwell recompletions and sidetracks targeting unbooked reserves, and
are among 70 identified drill bit projects in the company's inventory, Wilkirson says. EnVen is drilling three-four wells this
year at Cognac, and plans to drill 8-12 wells overall from its
operated platforms.
Last December, the Transocean Pontus drill ship was mobilized
to Green Canyon Block 248 in EnVen's Glider Field to execute
its GL-5ST2 sidetrack, an offset to the GL-5ST1 that had been
producing for four years before it went off line in 2015 because
of a mechanical failure. The GL-5ST2 targets the same oil
reservoir, the J sand, as the GL-5ST1. Reservoir modeling and
proprietary 4-D seismic analysis substantiated significant reserves
remaining in the J Sand, Wilkirson says.
"We have successfully sidetracked the well and finished
completion operations. The GL-5ST2 is now on production
making more than 4,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day," he
reveals. "We are still monitoring the pressures in the well. It
can likely produce more than that, but we are being very careful
because of the history of the prior completion and wanting to
make sure we do not bring it on too fast."
Also on EnVen's 2019 schedule are two subsea exploration
wells, including Mt. Ouray, a 1,000-plus acre Upper Mioceneage amplitude anomaly prospect in a suprasalt minibasin in
Green Canyon 723/767, Wilkirson relates. EnVen is operator of
Mt. Ouray, holding a 40 percent working interest with Ridgewood
Energy as a nonoperating partner. Wilkirson says Mt. Ouray is
expected to spud in the third quarter.
"The multiwell platform drilling programs allow us to target

American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019

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