Lucius Field, 5 Years From Discovery to First Oil in the US GOM

Abstract

The Lucius exploration well, KC 875 #1, was spud on October 15th, 2009, with the goal of targeting subsalt Pliocene sands in the ultra-deepwater of Keathley Canyon. The well discovered a thick Pliocene sand with oil-on-water, and a full-to-base, but thinner, Upper Miocene sand. Recognizing significant up-dip potential, a sidetrack was immediately drilled, and encountered almost 600 net feet of high-quality oil pay. Reservoir properties in the sands are in excess of 30% porosity, and up to a Darcy of permeability. Over the next year and half, four key appraisal achievements were completed including: 1.) Confirming an easterly extent to the subsalt Pliocene oil accumulation with the KC 975 #2 well, 2.) Establishment of a Working Interest Unit, incorporating offsetting block owners, thus capturing the entire seismically mappable structure, 3.) Flow-back test of the KC 875 #1 ST, confirming strong reservoir productivity rates, and 4.) Drilling of the KC 919 #3 appraisal well, located in a crestal position of the main subsalt Pliocene reservoir. In December of 2011, the Lucius co-owners sanctioned field development, and began construction of a SPAR facility, having a name plate capacity of 80,000 BOPD and 450 MMCFPD. First production was achieved on January 16th, 2015, a short 5 year turn-around-time, from discovery to first production. By the summer of 2016, the Lucius field, through strong reservoir performance from six producing wells and efficient facility debottlenecking, reached production levels of ~100,000 BOPD and ~110 MMCFPD of natural gas.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90291 ©2017 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Houston, Texas, April 2-5, 2017