14 DAY TRIAL // Multinational oil and gas giant BP, i.e. the company responsible for the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, says that it has made a “significant oil discovery” in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
In a press release issued this December 18, the company details that is has hit oil at a depth of about 30,000 feet (about 9,145 meters) at its Gila prospect, at a distance of about 300 miles (nearly 483 kilometers) south-west of New Orleans.
By the looks of it, this is the first major oil find announced in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and follows two other made in 2006 and 2009.
“BP announced today it has made a significant oil discovery at its Gila prospect, which it co-owns with ConocoPhillips, in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico,” the company writes in its press release.
“This is BP’s third discovery in recent years in the emerging Paleogene trend in the Gulf of Mexico and reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to the US offshore region. BP has previously announced two other Paleogene discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico – Kaskida in 2006 and Tiber in 2009,” it adds.
For the time being, the oil and gas giant cannot offer any information concerning the commercial potential of its discovery.
However, it says that it plans to carry out further exploration activities, and hopes that it will not be long until it determines the size of the oil reservoir and whether or not exploiting it worth it.
Commenting on this find, Richard Morrison, the regional president of BP's Gulf of Mexico business, said that, “The Gila discovery is a further sign that momentum is returning to BP’s drilling operations and well execution in the Gulf of Mexico.”
News of this find comes shortly after the company announced that, over the next 10 years, it plans to invest a whopping $4 billion (nearly €3 billion) annually in exploring and drilling new wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
Although environmentalists are not at all pleased with the company's working agenda, BP maintains that its initiatives yield noteworthy benefits for the US' economy.
“Over the past five years, BP has invested more than $55 billion (€39.96 billion) in the US – more than any other energy company. BP is the nation’s second-largest producer of oil and gas and provides enough energy annually to light nearly the entire country for a year.”
“Directly employing more than 20,000 in the US, BP supports more than 260,000 jobs in total through all of its business activities,” the oil and gas giant explains.